Bioshock: Remnants
by BeeBurgers
Summary: When Ryan could not be assured of his supremacy of Rapture, he created a group of secret assassins. One of these was David, also known as Thirteen. Follow his journey through Rapture after Ryan and Lamb's deaths. Set before and after both games.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello. This is my first story here. Admittedly I wrote this a while ago, so I apologize if it's still a little rough around the edges. I am a review addict, so please feel free to critique, question, and comment to your heart's content. Thanks for reading, Enjoy! (It's my first time here, be gentle)**

Bioshock: Remnants

Part 1: Apollo Square

Apollo Square bustled with activity. This was nothing new, as it was one of the busiest areas in Rapture. Even though it was located nearly a mile below the ocean's surface, someone had gone through great lengths to ensure that it stayed as bright as day. Bright lights shown on the diverse collection of Rapture's populace.

From the rich to the poor, the have to the have-nots, at the best of times Apollo Square would make anyone feel welcome. However, 1958 was not the best of times. Though Rapture had been built to be a paradise, crime was a part of everyday life. People went missing, turned up dead, and, more frequently than not, were found to be involved with either Frank Fontaine or Andrew Ryan. The former was rumored to live within the square, or near enough that just being seen there would earn a person a permanent spot on Ryan's black list.

Between the towering Olympus Heights and the square sat a small bar. Unlike Apollo square which was home to everyone under the waves, this bar was home to only two types of customers. There were the suits, men of power and fortune, who strutted about with their heads in the air. Amongst, and yet not a part of, the suits were the working stiffs, their eyes cast to the ground, their shoulders hunched.

Trying his best to blend in with the other working class, David checked himself in a hanging mirror. His brown eyes went from the grease smeared across his face to the uneven, short, black bristles that covered his scalp. He tried to imitate the other working stiffs, with their heads down, and their backs hunched, despite the years of training that told him to stand straight. Repositioning the worker's beret on his head, David went to the counter and nodded to the bar tender.

Nearby, he could spot the others. Five leaned against a wall, talking to a woman, his confident smirk playing into his disguise as a wealthy businessman. Only a few feet away, Six marched into the bar, looking exhausted in a fish-gutter's outfit, his apron covered in blood and smelling of dead aquatic life. Only Eighteen looked truly out of place. Not because of his clothing, which made him look like a crime lord, but because he kept glancing over his shoulder and drumming his fingers on the counter.

As David casually glanced at the other suits in the bar, making sure he wasn't doing so obviously, he noticed that none of them seemed nervous. Internally, the boy found himself berating Eighteen. Then he took a shallow breath and returned to his drink, hoping that no one would notice he'd yet to take so much as a single sip. The four of them were waiting for the sixth member of their party, Number Three.

Without warning, Eighteen crossed the bar, and leaned over David. His eyes widening in shock, David hoped he was playing the role of a shocked working stiff and not of a man who was sure his colleague had just cost him his life. If anyone in the bar realized what was going on, the five of them would find themselves on the wrong end of about a dozen guns.

"What do we do?" Eighteen hissed. For a moment, David didn't answer, not trusting himself not to simply throttle his teammate. "Thirteen, I said what the hell do we do now?"

"Stick to the fucking plan!" David responded, his voice little more than a grating whisper. "Now, slap me on the back and walk away laughing before you get us killed." Eighteen followed David's instructions, playing the part of an obnoxious kingpin, drunk on his own power. David realized that he was shaking and hoped that, yet again, his real emotions were working to improve his deceit.

At last, as though he'd been waiting for one of them to make a mistake before arriving, Three strolled into the bar. Perhaps if he'd been there five minutes earlier, Eighteen wouldn't have blown his cover. Maybe, one of Fontaine's goons wouldn't have gone running to his boss.

Five caught it first. The woman he'd been talking to, casually pulled a derringer from her purse, and fired a round into his chest. Her face splattered with Three's blood, the woman fired again, putting another nail in his coffin. Before he'd fallen to the ground, the woman was turning to aim at Eighteen, and the bartender was raising a shotgun from behind the counter.

Before the bartender could fire, David rolled over the counter and planted his palm into the other man's nose. Using his momentum to carry him, the teenager then drove his elbow into the bartender's chin. Relieving the already unconscious man of his firearm, David aimed the shotgun at the woman. Even as he pulled the trigger he could see the insane smile that had crossed her face as she fired at Eighteen.

With a thunderclap, the shotgun let loose a cluster of pellets that slammed into the woman's chest and stomach. While her aim had been less precise, only winging Eighteen's stomach, the man who charged into the bar, his Thompson Machinegun blazing with automatic gunfire, finished the boy off with a single burst.

As Six dove behind the counter, David pumped the shot gun and fired again, this time going wide. Three had all but disappeared, leaving only Six and David to complete the task at hand. The orders, handed down from Ryan himself, were to kill Fontaine, the most wanted and dangerous man in Rapture.

"Well, it's hit the fan now," Six shouted as David knelt behind the counter. As he said it, his hand became alive with electricity. Six was one of the few who had been permitted to use Plasmids, and he put the ability to practice as the bolt of electricity slammed into Fontaine's goon. The force of the Plasmid sent the man flying.

Using the short lull in the gun fight, David and Six fled the bar, slipping into Olympus Heights. According to the plan, this was supposed to have been the easy part. Getting past Fontaine's guards, into his home, and then killing him would be the real challenge.

Ahead, the elevator that would have taken them to Fontaine's penthouse sat, though it was open, there was no way they'd ride it to the top unharmed. Instead, David ran at the wall as though he hoped to plow through it. Before he slammed into the concrete he leapt, kicked off from the wall and vaulted over the second story banister.

With the understanding that their initial plan had relied on Fontaine's men's observation skills to be lax, David and the others had found an alternative route into Fontaine's home. The third floor housed a small ventilation system that shared an opening with the fourth. Ideally they would have entered the penthouse quietly, without needing to shoot their way through Apollo Square. Of course, ideally they wouldn't have lost Five, Eighteen and presumably Three in a gunfight.

Before someone could spot them, Six and David crawled into the third floor vent and silently made their way to Fontaine's penthouse. Relying on haste more than silence, David kicked the grate from the vent and slid into the main entryway. He pulled the modified Colt from his belt and cocked the trigger.

Without warning, a horrible pain shocked David's stomach. Falling to one knee, vainly holding his stomach as blood slipped through his fingers, David watched as Six stormed into the room only to be knocked back, a neat hole in his head.

"You think we didn't know?" A deep voice thundered from the shadows. A hand suddenly appeared and wrapped itself around David's throat. "We knew from the beginning." Fontaine pushed David against the nearest wall, pinning the teenager with ease before bringing his pistol to slam into the boy's face with a nasty crack.

"About the slugs, Plasmids, even you little freaks," Fontaine explained, his voice confident and cruel. His Colt missing, David grabbed his knife, hoping to at least wound Fontaine before he bled-out. His arm was pulled aside, and without warning a fresh agony in his shoulder told David that Fontaine had dislocated his arm from its socket. "I've got plans for this city. Big ones." Even as the man spoke, David could feel a strange, burning sensation in his stomach as though someone had poured boiling water down his throat.

David didn't need a doctor or one of Ryan's goons to tell him what was wrong. The sea slug in his stomach was revolting. It was trying to reject its host. In the process, it would kill David, leaching deadly poisons into his body.

"It's a shame you won't be around to see it." Without another word, the crime boss of Rapture slid the edge of the blade across David's throat. Initially it had felt horrible, the cutting edge opening his skin, sending a wave of panic and horror through David's body. However, it was replaced by a foggy dreamlike state.

Letting the teenager fall to the carpeted floor, Fontaine turned to the other criminals who'd come in, possibly wondering what the noise had been. "Come on boys, Time to go out in a blaze of gunfire!"

Though he was dying, the sea slug refused to let David go so easily. It was simultaneously keeping him alive and poisoning every cell in his body at the same time. Time seemed to become less constant, things would slow to a crawl, and then in the blink of his eye, the room would change, like he'd been asleep for hours. People moved through the room, their voices nothing more than vague rumblings, shadows crawled across the floor and lights danced before his eyes. It wasn't until a pair of luminous eyes came into view, that David's mind could process what was happening around him.

"Uncle Ryan wants me to tell you something," the Little Sister said in a singsong voice. "He says only he gets to decide when you become an Angel. No one else." With that the Little Sister jammed her ADAM-gathering hypodermic needle into David's heart.


	2. Chapter 2: Awakening

Part 2: Awakening

Death was not as long as David had expected it to be. As the last visages of life had left his body, the Little Sister burned into his retina, the world had gone dark. However, only a breath later he suffered from a horrendous jolt of electricity arcing through his body. Every cell suddenly screamed in agony, his muscles tightening to the point of tearing, his bones threatening to shatter, and his mind feeling as though it were being pulled from his skull.

Then his body went limp and David fell from the Vita-Chamber. He landed face first on a cold, steel floor, unable to lift his arms to cushion his fall. For several moments the assassin wondered if he'd been brought back only to lie there, suffocating under his own weight. For all intents and purposes, he was blind and deaf. What light there was, only reached his eyes as a distant blur. His hearing was little more than a constant roar, like he'd put his head under a waterfall. Gravity seemed like it was pushing him to the floor.

At first, David considered just lying there, letting his body succumb to the pain and weariness. Never one to shy away from a challenge or give in to pressure, the half dead teenager dismissed the idea and rose to his knees. He had to grit his teeth to keep from crying out as his muscles protested the motion.

As he sat there, swaying to and fro, David willed his eyes to focus, squinting at the world around him. Slowly, the room began to take focus. As the pain in his head began to fade, his senses began to function again. And for a brief moment, he wished they hadn't.

For one, the room was on fire, a hole in the wall revealing a bit of piping that had burst and was alight in flames. For another the room was leaking. And, unless he was mistaken, it was buckling under the pressure of the ocean. None of these facts revealed any information in the slightest as to his location. Some of the aesthetics vaguely reminded David of his time under the employ of Ryan, but not anything to tell him where he was in Rapture.

At one point it may have been a lab, not so different from the labs where David had been inducted into Ryan's service. However, it had suffered from several catastrophic failures. As though punctuating his thoughts, a piece of the ceiling slipped free to crash to the floor.

As the last remnants of pain and unease began to lift from his body, David felt a new sensation creep outward from his stomach. It was the same burning discomfort he'd felt only moments after Fontaine had shot him. It carried with it a quiet numbing that seemed to turn his insides into unfeeling, dead tissue.

"Number Thirteen," a voice called over the noise of flames and water slapping against tile. "If you can hear me, pick up the radio." Turning, David found the voices origin: a simple, handheld radio. It hung next to the vita chamber as though someone had put it there just for him. With more effort than it should have taken, the newly living teenager pulled himself to his feet. "Thirteen, are you there?"

With a ragged growl, David plucked the radio from the wall. When he tried to speak, he found that his voice box was all but ruined. Putting a hand to his throat, the teenager found a ragged scar that wound its way around his neck, a remnant of Fontaine slitting his trachea open. Keeping his voice low, and his sentences short, he found that he could still speak, though the act itself was painful. "Here…"

"Good," the voice responded in an almost cheerful tone. While David couldn't recognize the speaker, she spoke with an unmistakable German accent. There was also a level of intelligence, a fluency to her words, something that came from a lengthy education.

"My name is Dr. Bridget Tenenbaum. I can get you out of here, but only if we hurry." Without warning the floor pitched to one side, the room tilting violently. As David stumbled to the nearest glass door he saw the reason for the room's unstable condition.

"You are in a section of Fontaine Futuristics that is falling into the Trench," Tenenbaum explained. The view through the bulkhead spoke volumes. Where the airlock should have continued to another portion of Fontaine's building, it stopped abruptly, its edge jagged where the small room had broken away from the rest of the structure. The rest of Fontaine Futuristics was at least fifty feet above him, still resting on the edge of the trench. "As you are now, you cannot leave. The pressure is enough to kill you, and the sea slug in your chest is ending your life, yes?"

Though she said it like a question, David knew Tenenbaum wasn't asking. It was a fact: the sea slug was killing him. It had been since Fontaine had shot him, and would continue to do so. Even if this Dr. Tenenbaum could help him, there was no way for him to get to her. The ocean would crush him like a tin can.

"But there is a solution," Tenenbaum continued. Even as she explained, David could feel his body dying. His fingers were going numb, the world was beginning to blur again, and even the air around him was taking a metallic tinge, as though each breath was poison. "Look for a display case near the door."

Shaking his head in a vain attempt to clear his vision, the former assassin did as he was instructed. Near the door was a display case, as tall as him, and containing what looked like a diving suit. "This is what you are needing, Thirteen. It will combat the poisoning effects of the sea slug, and let you walk along the ocean floor." Before she had finished, David began to don the heavily armored suit. He fumbled with the various components, struggling with the clasps and buckles, trying to force his numb and shaking body to function properly. As he locked the final components into place and reached for the helmet, Tenenbaum's voice returned.

"I am sorry, but this will hurt." Not sure if he'd heard her correctly, David locked the helmet into place, and, almost in response, the suit gave an ominous hiss. Once it had become airtight, something drove its way into David's left arm. He looked at the spun copper that composed the plating that covered his forearm. A clear tube ran from somewhere on his back, along his arm to the exact spot where the pain originated. The tube instantly filled with a glowing blue liquid: Eve. As though it had gotten a taste for his flesh, the suit drove more hypodermic needles into his body. He felt pinpricks of white pain in his stomach, chest and along his spine. Finally a searing agony leapt into his chest, driving him to his knees, as a final needle buried itself in his heart.

Once the suit was on, however, David instantly felt better. His senses returned with sharp clarity, and the burning, numbing sensation receded. He took a deep breath, savoring the way the oxygen nourished his lungs rather than poisoned them. "You are feeling better now. Yes?"

"Much," David responded. He barely noticed that Tenenbaum's voice now emanated from within his newly acquired helmet and not the discarded radio. It still hurt to talk, and his voice was still rougher than it used to be, but, as he stood, feeling the balance in his new suit, David felt life return to his tired limbs. "Now what?"

"Very soon, that room will collapse and follow Persephone into the trench." David vaguely remembered Tenenbaum's name from a list of those who worked with Frank Fontaine, but at the moment he could care less. By his count she had not only prevented a very painful and debilitating death from the sea slug, but may have also brought him back from the dead. "Even with that suit, you cannot survive those depths."

Moving around, testing his flexibility in the diving suit, David found himself before a full length mirror. It had probably been placed there for the express purpose of showing the suit's new inhabitant their appearance. The man who looked back at David from the mirror, through a mask of copper and brass seemed alien. The boots gave him an extra few inches, their copper plated soles looking like medieval armor. Copper plates made hard points over his shins and knees, breaking the pattern of thick, insulating fabric that composed the body of the suit.

"That suit was designed specifically for Ryan's… boys like you," Tenenbaum explained. Around his waist a belt, that supported his frame, held several diving tools, as well as an empty holster, though for what David couldn't guess. Along his spine a series of ridges, made from copper plated steel, led to the heavy armor on his shoulders. While the teenager could feel the weight of the suit, it didn't seem to actually push down on his shoulders, as though the suit somehow supported itself. While the suit added height and stature, to David's frame, it was nowhere near as bulky as the clumsy diving suits used to build and maintain Rapture. Rather, it fit his body like it had been custom tailored for the teenager.

"It will amplify your abilities, as well as offer some protection." David flexed his hands, looking at the heavy brass that capped each finger and backed his fists. His left arm held only the Eve tube, and a slotted plate of copper, as though something were missing. His right arm held what could only be a weapon. A hypodermic needle, at least six inches long, extended with a flick of his wrist. It reminded him of the same tools used by Little Sisters to gather ADAM, not only in its size, but because there was a clear vial behind the needle, empty, waiting to be filled.

"That is designed to harvest ADAM," Tenenbaum described as though she could see David looking at the weapon attached to his forearm. "Sophia Lamb may have had notions for you to assist with the Little Sisters in their gathering, but now we will never know."

The name Lamb sent a mild shock of recognition through David's brain. While Sophia had been one of Ryan's, she had been nothing like the goons David had worked with. She was something different, cold, calculating and manipulative. She'd toy with his and the others' minds, twisting their thoughts.

Looking back at the mirror a final time, David put a hand to the spherical metal that shaped his helmet. The face plate, a circle framed by copper support, glowed faintly, turning the glass opaque. It was as though he were wearing a mask. He couldn't see his own face. David fingered the mirror for a moment before slamming his fist into the glass. The newfound strength that coursed through his body felt like a loaded gun, ready to go off at any moment. As he moved away from the mirror Tenenbaum continued to describe his new suit of armor.

"The needle will drain the blood from a splicer, but I do not know for what purpose." _Splicer._ The word conjured a host of images and half whispered secrets. They were addicts, obsessed with altering their genetic makeup. Most people in Rapture would never mention them in polite society, like drunk, or socialist. "What effect it will have you, I also do not know. Now hurry Thirteen, we have work to be done."

"David… My name… is David." Without waiting for her to reply, the armored teen moved back to the clear bulkhead, wondering how he would get it open. Above him, the city of Rapture glowed like a beacon. Now, it offered none of its former glory. Structures that had once been created with only architectural artistry in mind were now ghostly skeletons, crumbing in the dark. Only a few, dim lights could be seen through the ocean haze. Between his derelict room and the city, a series of cables seemed to anchor the falling lab to Rapture, a thin lifeline back to the city.


	3. Chapter 3: Return to Rapture

Part 3: Return to Rapture

"To get that door open you will need some assistance," Tenenbaum instructed. "Look to your left." Following the doctors instructions, David found himself looking at a small vial of glowing liquid perched on a shelf. When he moved closer, the teenager saw the hypodermic next to the vial, and understood what she was asking him to do. The vial was evidently some kind of Plasmid, something that would help him get through the door.

A bolt of fear and panic shot through David as he put the needle into a small slot next to the Eve tube, which seemed specifically designed to accept Plasmid syringes. Before he could talk himself out of it, he depressed the plunger. A breath later, it felt as though the needle had contained fire and ice as the glowing liquid shot through his veins. The teenager grunted as his left arm convulsed on its own. A moment later a charge of electricity shot between his hands. Once the electricity had faded, and his muscles had unwound themselves, David felt a new power flooding through his body.

"That is Electro-Bolt." While Tenenbaum explained the Plasmid, and how it came to be in this particular laboratory, the armored clad teen set out to test his new ability. "Lamb knew this Plasmid was the easiest to adapt to, and would be the best suited toward... you and the other boys." Summoning the electricity again was like calling forth euphoria itself. Adrenaline spiked David's blood, and set his heart racing. All at once his body was alive with energy, exciting, terrifying and uncontrollable.

Flicking his wrist, David let the energy go. In every ad he'd seen, Electro-Bolt looked like lightning, arcing from someone's fingertips to touch a light bulb or some unwanted foe. Instead, a ball of light shot from his hand to slam into the nearest wall with a concussive thump. Even through his diving suit, David could feel the reverberation from the blast as it bounced off the walls in the small lab.

"As I thought," the always talkative Dr. Tenenbaum said. "Your ADAM slug has adapted the Plasmid. It, and others you are taking, will bend to your will more easily than with others." While this was fascinating, David doubted that talking would get him out of the lab any time soon.

"Be careful," Tenenbaum warned as David approached the door. Wondering what he could do to protect himself, the newly spliced teenager let another bolt of light and electricity fly from his hand to slam into the door's electrical systems. With the hiss and snap of wires frying, the door slid open.

Then, the entire weight of the ocean came flooding into the room. The sudden surge of water threw David backward until he slammed into the opposite wall. The ocean was shocking cold. After a few moments of being churned in the icy waters, the room calmed.

Using his arms to help propel him forward, David walked onto the ocean floor. For a moment he wondered what would happen if he let his ballast go, and simply floated to the surface. _You'd be stuck in this suit for the rest of your life. That's what. _David told himself coldly. Looking up at the long climb back to Rapture he let out a soft sigh. _No time like the present. _

"You have been gone a long time Thir-David." As he climbed, Tenenbaum explained the current situation. "Since your death Andrew Ryan has been killed." The news took David's breath away. Ryan had been no friend of his, little more than a shadow beyond a veil, ordering people's deaths, but it was still a shock to hear. "Fontaine has died also, by his own hand more or less." A shallow smile crept over David's face. _Fontaine too? They can rot in hell together._

There had been no factor greater than those two men in shaping David's life. Ryan was the king of an empire, Fontaine a Boogey-Man made all the more terrifying by simply being real. Growing up on Pauper's Drop, both men were spoken only in whispers, as though saying their names too loud might cause them to materialize out of thin air. Thinking of the Drop only led his mind to one place. _Alice._ Her name in his head made his blood run cold. Continuing his climb, the former assassin put those emotions aside, knowing that they would only slow him down and cloud his judgment.

"Sophia Lamb rose to power once those two were gone," Tenenbaum continued, oblivious to the inner workings of David's mind. "She brought Rapture back from the brink of destruction."

Still listening intently, he began to wonder how long he'd been… dead? Comatose? Was there a word for his condition? He finished climbing the length of cable and entered the flooded ruins where the lab had once been a part of Fontaine Futuristics.

"I do not know what happened to her. A rogue Big Daddy killed many of her followers and saved the Little Sisters. Then she disappeared. The Big Daddy may have killed her or she may have returned to the surface." Though he was familiar with Little Sisters, the word Big Daddy meant nothing to David. "Those who have used ADAM have become addicted to it. They've devolved into little more than animals."

Climbing through the wreckage became a chance for David to learn the limitation of his new suit. He used the weightlessness of being submerged to explore his newfound strength and agility. "Between Fontaine's son and the rogue Big Daddy, most of the Little Sisters have been rescued and rehabilitated. Those who were in the program during Rapture's prime have become Big Sisters. They were slaves to Lamb and her workings, but now they roam the city, driven to protect the little ones."

At last, David spotted an end to the maze of submerged wreckage. Ahead the water was held at bay by a pocket of air. "This is where I am needing you, David. While many Little Sisters have been rescued, many remain in the city. If we do not help them, they will die, slowly frozen or crushed to death in the dark… alone."


	4. Chapter 4: Trial by Fire

Part 4: Trial by Fire

_So this is Fontaine Futuristics,_ David thought to himself as he emerged from the ocean. Frankly he had expected something a bit more impressive. The room he emerged into was almost identical to the lab, only on a much larger scale. The walls and floor were tiled, and the roof was made of steel with large I-beams stretching from one wall to the other. Lights flickered dimly, offering little more illumination than the steady glow of the ocean. It reminded David of some sunken warship, a dreadnaught lost at the bottom of the sea.

A screech suddenly tore through the silence, reverberating off the walls and echoing from beyond the room he occupied. The former assassin had to fight his nerves to keep from jumping. Instead, he pivoted around a nearby I-beam that had fallen to form a bridge between the floor and the rafters. The sound had come from beyond a set of heavy doors at the other end of the room. Doors that were labeled Train station with a glowing sign.

"Let's go boys," a voice sounded from beyond the doors. Even through the walls David could sense something wrong with the speaker. It wasn't just that it was inhuman and ragged. There was a cruelty, an unnamable factor that spoke of savagery and violence. While the man behind the voice was a stranger, the tone was familiar. As a former employee of Andrew Ryan, he had encountered the kind of man who spoke the same. They were killers. The man was a killer. They didn't do it for money or survival. This man was a killer, someone who did it for the sheer joy of slaughtering others. And as the door slid open and several beams of light split the darkness, David realized the killer was not alone.

"I want this done quick," the killer commanded as he and his compatriots moved into the massive room. Not wanting to fight four armed men head on, the former assassin looked for a spot where he could stay out of sight for the time being. The I-beam he hid behind offered a solution, forming a path to the ceiling rafters.

After taking a step back, David rushed forward. A part of him was shocked at his own grace and agility. A single leap brought him halfway to the rafters. Gripping the edges, he shimmied up the I-beam until he reached where it had bent toward the floor. Once he was among the rafter that held the ceiling in place, David found himself studying the men below.

The first thing he noticed was how inhuman they looked. _What in the hell are they?_ As if she were reading his mind Tenenbaum's voice returned, quietly whispering the answer to his unspoken question.

"They are Splicers. Their humanity is all but gone now." There was little arguing with Tenenbaum's assessment. Each Splicer looked as though someone had taken a vat of acid to their face. Their features were lopsided, or crooked, eyes uneven, mouths twisted to one side.

"Why do we have to search this rotted piece of shit?" David looked at the speaker, a Splicer who had moved away from the group to look around a pile of rubble. Though the Splicer had injected an edge into his voice, the armored teenager could recognize the waver of fear, the subtle hint of weakness. He knew to look for the weak link, his first target.

"Because Cassidy has promised us a heap of ADAM," the killer responded harshly. _Cassidy?_ Every fiber of David's being froze. His muscles went rigid and stiff, clenching tight as he fought to get a grip on his emotions.

"David?" Tenenbaum asked. Distantly, the teenager was aware of Tenenbaum's voice, but he was not in a state to give a rational response. "David!" Something in the doctor's tone brought David out of his stupor. Coming back from his trance-like state, the teenager realized that he'd held the I-beam in a death grip. He had to fight his muscles and nerves for a moment before they would give up on their hold of the steel, but David managed to unclench his hand. A set of indentation remained in the metal where he had gripped it.

Flexing his hand, David stared at the Splicers below. Only four had entered the room, and he saw reason to suspect one had remained behind with the train. At that moment, David wasn't sure if he was glad that there were so few, or angry that he could only kill four.

"I'm fine." Nimbly stalking the Splicer's along the beam, the former assassin moved into position over the Splicer he'd decided would be the first to die. "This won't… take long."

Noiselessly, David leapt from the rafters to land less than a foot behind the straying Splicer. After taking a moment to ensure the others hadn't heard or seen him, the armored teen engaged the ADAM needle on his right arm and slid it into the Splicer's neck. With practiced ease, David put one hand over the dying man's mouth to silence his gurgling death rattle before dragging him into the shadows.

Despite that David knew he hadn't made a sound, the killer turned his flashlight on the spot where the unsure Splicer had been only moments ago. "James? Where the hell have you buggered off to?"

Sticking to the shadows, the former assassin moved behind another Splicer. Grabbing the man's wrist, David relived the unaware Splicer of his pipe wrench before driving his elbow into his opponent's skull. Regardless of his efforts to stay quiet, there was no silencing the muffled crack of the Splicer's vertebrae snapping.

Both of the remaining Splicers turned their flashlights to glare in David's face. Before either could shoot him, David dove behind a pile of rubble. The unmistakable sound of a Thompson machinegun letting loose precise bursts of hot lead filled the lab. Because of the dim lighting, the former assassin was able to move behind the surviving Splicer who was not shooting and calmly break the man's neck.

Before the killer had a chance to train his sights on him, David threw the pipe wrench. Though he'd been aiming for the man's skull, the former assassin was still pleased when the wrench knocked the Thompson from the killer's hands. Hoping to end the fight then and there, David charged forward, ready to impale the man.

Without warning, the space between the two burst into flames, the air rippling with heat. The explosion knocked David to one side, slamming him into the same I-beam he'd used to reach the rafters. The blow knocked the wind from his lungs and left his head spinning. As the killer raised his hand again, his fingertips ablaze with an unnatural flame, David rolled around the I-beam, putting cold steel between himself and the next sheet of fire.

Struggling to catch his breath, the former assassin could feel the heat even through his dense, armored suit. The plate on the back if his hand was glowing. Wisps of smoke and steam drifted past his face plate. With a snarl, David rounded the I-beam and closed the distance between him and the killer.

As only surviving Splicer looked to snap his fingers, and presumably send another wall of fire at  
>David, the former assassin reached across the narrow gap between them and pulled the man's arm aside. Using his momentum to put his entire body behind the blow, the armored teen brought his other hand crashing into the man's elbow. With a hollow crack, the killer's arm snapped, his bones all but shattering.<p>

As the killer screamed in agony, David brought his elbow to snap against the man's chin, feeling a sadistic pleasure as the metal slammed into flesh. As a final blow, the former assassin then stepped on the killer's knee, driving his copper shod boot to snap bone like kindling. With the Splicer immobilized, disarmed, and all but unconscious, David let him fall to the ground.

Fighting to control his breathing, he could see the killer vainly try to snap his fingers again. Unwilling to let even an unlikely threat go unnoticed, David stepped on the killer's hand. The killer let out another scream before finally lying still, his eyes on the former assassin. David leaned close, putting his head next to the killer's ear.

"Cassidy," he rasped. The Splicer's eyes widened in recognition. Then they narrowed to glare at David.

"Fuck you Fish Bowl." With a harsh and ragged laugh, the armored teen stood, turning his back on the killer. _Stay down here and rot,_ David thought. _I hope it takes a long time._ Without another glance back, he went to the train platform and found a train car that looked like it would fall off its rail at any moment. _It'll have to do,_ he thought, both of the train and of his violent reaction to hearing Cassidy's name. For a moment, David wished that Tenenbaum hadn't bothered to bring him back. He wished that she had left him in the dark emptiness where he didn't have to fight and kill for his survival. Where the ghosts of his past didn't haunt his every waking moment.


	5. Chapter 5: Dreaming of Alice

Part 5: Dreaming of Alice

"Shi-ite!" After her long silence during the fight, Tenenbaum's sudden exclamation gave David a shock. Taking a breath to slow his racing heart, he tried to familiarize the layout of the train controls while waiting for her to explain. "David, I need you to get to Gaia Plaza as fast as you are able."

At that moment, the armored teen felt the need to shout at Tenenbaum. Would it have been too much to ask for five minutes rest? He'd just climbed from the grave, through an underwater wreckage, and fought for his life. Was a short reprieve too much to ask?

"I know you are tired, and this can't be easy for you, but I am needing you to get there now." Without any other explanation, the doctor launched into a crash course on the locomotive's control system. While he was by no means an expert, David could at least get the train to Gaia Plaza.

Despite that he had pushed the throttle all the way forward, the train screeched at a snail's pace, slowly leaving that station and dipping into the ocean water. At the rate he was going it would be several minutes before he reached Gaia Plaza.

A sudden weariness crept through David's limbs as he waited for the train to get to its destination. Since he wasn't needed at the controls anymore, he slid to the floor as a wave of exhaustion suddenly washed over him. The short ride to Gaia Plaza shouldn't have been enough time for him to fall asleep, let alone dream, but he must have, for David soon found himself back in the Drop.

* * *

><p>"Alice, get out of the bloody street!" David turned to look. There in the street, a young girl with short, brown hair and hazel eyes stood in the middle of the walkway. Around her, suits all but ran her over, oblivious to her presence. Hiding his grin, he went to the little girl. This was David as a young teenager. He hadn't killed anyone in Ryan's name. He hadn't been trained to ignore emotions like sympathy and pity.<p>

Instead, he still felt sorry for Alice's mother, Mrs. Verloren, still laughed at the young girl's antics. Scooping her up, and hanging her over one shoulder, David brought Alice back to her still half hysterical mother.

"If you keep wandering off, she's going to beat you," David whispered in Alice's ear. "And then she'll tell my mother, who'll beat _me._"

"Don't worry Davy," the little girl responded. If anyone else ever called David "Davy," he would have to hit them. Alice was the only one who could get away with it. Sometimes, he would catch grief from his friends about spending time with someone nearly half his age, but he knew that if he didn't watch out for her, no one would. In the Drop the only ones who could help them were each other. As though she had read her thoughts Alice added: "I'll protect you."

Setting her down next to her mother, David tried to fix her with a reproachful glare. Alice merely smiled at the older boy. He didn't know it them, but that would be the last time he would see her.

The next morning, Mrs. Verloren had come by David's home, tears in her eyes, sobbing hysterically. She had lost Alice that very morning over at the Fishbowl Dinner. "You know how she is. She'll wander off, and won't say a word about it." David felt his heart jump into his throat. Alice couldn't be gone, she just… couldn't. Of course neither David nor his mother had seen the little girl that day.

Determined to find his neighbor, David had gone to the diner, retracing Alice's steps. He'd asked every living person in the Drop, begged the police to do something. However, disappearances in the Drop were common. People would vanish from plain sight every day. No one cared about one little girl.

* * *

><p>The train lurched to a stop, jerking David from his dreams. Feeling dampness on his cheeks, he reached up to wipe away tears, only to find that something was in the way. Panicking, he struggled with his helmet's clasps. <em>Off, off! Get it off!<em> David screamed internally. At last the sphere of copper and brass came free and he threw it to the ground.

When he raised his gloved hand to his face, feeling the cold metal brush his skin, David choked back a sob. Inhaling sharply, he fought to control the feeling of loss and sorrow. _It happened years ago,_ the teenager snapped internally, _let her go._

"David?" Tenenbaum's voice echoed from his helmet. "David, are you there? What is happening?"

After a moment, David was able to bring his breathing under control. He wiped the last of the tears from his eyes and lifted the helmet in his hand. Already he could feel the sting of poison in his lungs. "I'm fine," David said, sealing the helmet back to the suit. "Bad dreams."


	6. Chapter 6: The Hunt

Part 6: The Hunt

David stepped from the train, entering Gaia Plaza. The skylight above let in the dim glow of the ocean, illuminating the Plaza's bizarre architecture. Initially Gaia Plaza had been a part of Rapture's foundation, acting as an anchor for the city. Pillars of steel, hundreds of feet long, had been driven into the solid bedrock, and Gaia Plaza had been built around them. This meant that the train stopped at the top floor, and the building descended down, into the bedrock.

"You need to hurry, David." As she said it, David could hear why. Beyond the small train station, the sound of a firefight reached his ears. Leaving the station, he entered the main complex. Like most of Rapture, Gaia Plaza had been built around a central atrium that let the light from the ocean seep into the lower levels. There were five levels between the top and the bottom, each lined with a balcony that made a circle around the central plaza.

Looking down, David could see flashes of light, shadows moving beneath the lowest balcony. The bottom floor was a simple, open area, almost like an indoor park. Moving swiftly and silently down, the former assassin stayed away from the edges of the balconies, knowing he'd be an easy target for the combatants below.

Without warning the building shook with a thunderous roar. For a moment David thought a whale must have injured itself, the sound was so low and loud. Then, the source of the noise slid into view. The copper shod teenager felt his eyes widen in surprise. Steadying itself on the tiled floor, a massive creature in a diving suit roared again.

"That, David is a Big Daddy," Tenenbaum explained. The hulking monstrosity was easily six feet tall, and at least another four wide. He was dressed in a diving rig, a bulkier version of the suit David was wearing. The creature's helmet was a dome of spun copper that faced forward. Covering the dome were several dozen small portholes, each one emanating a red glow. The thing that caught David's eye, however, was the massive drill affixed to the Big Daddy's right arm. Every ridge on the drill was covered in blood.

"It is a Bouncer model. They are responsible for protecting the little ones while they gather ADAM." As the doctor continued her explanation, a Splicer shot into view, possibly hoping to club the Bouncer with a piece of piping. The armored giant calmly plucked the man from the ground and used him as a makeshift club against a second attacker. Next to the Big Daddy, a small girl in a tattered dress scrambled away from the fight.

More Splicers came at the duo from every direction. The girl stumbled, and before she could recover, one of the attackers grabbed her arm. Screeching in her inhuman voice, the Little Sister called out to her protector. With more grace than something covered in spun copper and brass should display, the Bouncer whipped around and drove his drill into the offending Splicer. There was a splash of blood and gore, and just as quickly, the Big Daddy lifted the girl onto his shoulders.

Despite the shocking ferocity of the Bouncer's attacks, David knew the Big Daddy would falter soon. As if on cue, a shotgun blast rang out, echoing off the plaza walls. The armored giant stumbled to one knee. A pool of blood was forming under one massive boot, and each time the Bouncer swung his drill, the blow would be slower, less coordinated. One wild swing landed a lucky blow on another Splicer, killing the attacker.

David felt a pang in his chest as he watched the dying protector attacking blindly, vainly trying to defend the Little Sister who rode on his shoulders. He recognized the look of a creature being used. He'd seen it in the mirror every day he'd worked for Ryan. _Poor bastard,_ David thought morosely. With a sickening calm, a Splicer approached the flailing Big Daddy from behind, staying out of reach from the gore encrusted drill.

Knowing what would happen next, the former assassin darted for the stairs. This was beyond cruelty. It was murder, plain and simple. This was a pack of hyenas bleeding their victim dry. David also knew there was no way he'd be fast enough to stop it from happening.

With a thunderous blast, the shotgun put an end to the Bouncer's struggle. The hulking giant let out another groan before falling to the floor. The silence was broken only by the sobs of the Little Sister as she cried over her dead protector.

"Get up Mr. B. Please get up." Despite how alien her voice sounded, David still hated the sound of her crying, pleading with her dead protector to come back to her aid.

"Don't worry Poppet. Everything will be okay now." The same edge that David had recognized in the killer's voice from Fontaine Futuristics permeated the Splicer's tone. It was the voice of a killer, the voice of a man who lusted for violence and destruction. The six surviving Splicers advanced on the girl, looking at her like a piece of meat. "ADAM will make everything all better."

Still a floor above the plaza, the former assassin leapt over the balcony. As he fell, he let a charge of Electro-Bolt fill his hand. With a flick of his wrist, David let the bolt fly, watching with grim satisfaction as it slammed into the furthest Splicer with a concussive force.

When he had leapt, the former assassin had been aiming for the nearest of the Splicers, hoping to land close enough to stab the man as quickly as possible. Instead he ended up landing _on_ the Splicer, sending both copper shod boots into his opponent's spine. Standing next to the man he'd just crushed to death was another attacker. The Splicer, shocked at having witnessed his compatriot squashed beneath an armored killer, frantically trained his pistol sights on David's head.

Fueled by his outrage, David whipped the gun aside, turning the man so that he faced away from the teenager. With the ease that came from repetition, the former assassin bent the man's wrist back until the pistol was aimed at his own spine. David pulled the trigger, killing the Splicer with his own gun.

Now armed, the former assassin put his foot into the dead man's back and launched him at one of his former compatriots. The attacker fell back, trapped under the weight of the dead Splicer. David cocked the hammer back and fired at the Splicer nearest the Little Sister. His aim was wild, and the bullet merely clipped the Splicer in the shoulder, knocking the man to the ground.

Before the armored teen had a chance to take another shot, the final standing Splicer leveled a double barreled shot gun on his chest. Diving to his right, David sought cover behind a nearby support beam as a solid, deer slug slammed into the marble pillar. Behind the pillar, the former assassin knew he was pinned, and that he only had seconds before, the other two surviving Splicers retaliated.

David pulled off a feint, moving as though he were rounding the pillar on one side, only to quickly pivot back and come around the other side. When the support beam took another slug, he knew the ploy had worked, and he took his time to train the sights on the Splicer as the other man tried to reload.

This time, the former assassin's aim was perfect, and the bullet slammed into the man's right eye, killing him instantly. Glancing at the Splicer who still struggled to free herself from her dead companion, David felt ice spread through his veins. With a calm that was eerie even to him, the former assassin went to the fallen Splicer, ignoring her fuming hatred as she spat insult after insult, and shot her. Next he went to the Splicer he'd clipped and finished the job he'd started. At last the room went silent, a stark contrast to the incredible violence that had taken place only seconds ago.

It wasn't until David heard her sobs that he remembered why he had acted so swiftly, why he had put an end to six lives without feeling even the slightest bit of remorse. Huddled behind one of the Big Daddy's limp arms, the Little Sister continued to sob. Moving to her, the armored teen couldn't help but be reminded of Alice. She was the same age and general build. However, this girl was blonde and her dress was in tatters. A thin line of red, what looked suspiciously like a blood stain, ran from the corner her mouth to her chin. She had the look of something that had come back from the grave, a notion that was only reinforced by her almost supernaturally glowing, yellow eyes. Her skin was gaunt and pale, and even her crying for her lost companion sounded faked, like an actress in a bad movie.

Slowly, and as gently as he could manage in a suit of spun copper and brass, David knelt next to her and held out his hand.


	7. Chapter 7: A Mutual Bond

Part 7: A Mutual Bond

"Do not worry," Tenenbaum said as the Little Sister looked at David's outstretched hand. "She will be sensing the sea slug within you. This will be letting her trust you." Slowly, tentatively, the small girl moved around her fallen protector, inching closer to David. She sniffled, wiping her eyes, her bare feet slapping against the tiled floor. Leaning closer, she sniffed the copper plated, gloved hand before her, like a dog would. At last her face broke into a smile, the emotion as genuine as her sorrow for her lost protector had been, and she touched David's hand.

Without warning, David's vision faltered, the world around him shifting, as though he were dreaming. Distantly, he was aware of the girl's still glowing eyes, and Gaia Plaza, but they had receded into the background.

"Who's on first?" David asked Alice. Like a child who'd grabbed a hot plate, David recoiled away from the Little Sister. He stared at his hand as if he expected it to burst into flames. For just a moment, a brief second, he'd been back on Pauper's Drop, talking to Alice. _What in the hell was that?_ David thought, as he fell backwards, trying to put some space between him and the Little Sister's outstretched hand.

"Tenenbaum," David croaked, "What… was that?" Of course, the doctor hadn't seen what had just happened, the hallucination, the dream, the memory that had flashed before his eyes.

"I don't know," Tenenbaum responded. "I think… I believe she is getting to know you. She has never met anything like you before, David." The doctor's explanation did little to assuage David's rattled nerves. "What did you see?"

"Memories," the armored teen answered shortly. Rising beck to a squatting position, he kept his eyes on the Little Sister, the way she still waited expectantly for him to take her hand again.

"We had some suspicions about their ability to share memories with each other. She is probably wanting to know if you are a friend." David didn't respond to the doctor. Instead, he reached out again and let the little girl take his hand.

* * *

><p>"Right," Alice responded with a giggle, back, once again, in the Drop.<p>

"So who's on first?" David asked with mock frustration. It was a routine he'd brought from the surface. Abbot and Costello's Who's on first routine always made Alice laugh. Whenever possible the two of them would run through the skit. It had taken months for the young girl to learn not to blurt out the answer, "But that's his name: Who."

On a good day, they would make it to Who signing his checks before Alice would break down into hysterical laughter. Afterwards, there was no use in trying to talk to her. She'd just start giggling until her mother called her to come back home.

* * *

><p>As abruptly as the vision had begun, it ended, leaving David gasping for air. Without warning the Little Sister clambered up his arm to perch on the air tank affixed to his back. Glancing over his shoulder at the little girl, the armored teen felt a twinge of both pity and distaste. Evidently, she had not lived a normal, healthy life, but at the same time, David did not like the way she could reach into his psyche and pluck memories from there with such ease.<p>

"You are needing to take her to one of the air vents they favor," Tenenbaum explained. The Little Sisters using air ducts to move throughout Rapture was one of the few things he knew about the small girls and what they did. Rapture had always had a need for ADAM, and the Little Sisters were responsible for keeping that need in check. They would wander the city, draining blood from the dead, and somehow they'd turn it into ADAM, bolstering the supply.

"You will be finding one nearby, in Volcanus Flats." The doctor paused for a moment. "The fastest way there, will be through the causeway that connects to Gaia Plaza." When David scanned the plaza, he found an alleyway that led to one of Rapture's many bulkhead doors. Above the door, a half lit sign with the words _Volcanus Flats, _Flickered dimly.

"Hang on," David told the Little sister before starting toward the door. She sat on his air tank like he was giving her a piggyback ride. Once within the airlock that connected the two residential structures, the small room would have to equalize before it would let him enter the flats.

"Tenenbaum… how long?" He wasn't sure why he asked, what use the information could be. Everyone he'd ever cared for had died or been taken away before Ryan had press ganged him into his secret group of assassins. For several long moments the doctor didn't answer, as though she wanted to spare him the burden of knowing.

"You were the one who tried to kill Fontaine, yes?" David nodded, knowing she could see the motion. "Eleven years." Despite his self-induced indifference, he still felt a shock. More than a decade had passed since he had died trying to kill Fontaine. David opened his mouth to ask another question when the overhead speaker suddenly crackled to life.

"Who's this rat crawling around my city?" Even though the sound was scratched and broken, David still recognized the man's voice. A sudden violent rage welled up from his stomach, like a wave coming to shore. "Looks like one of Lamb's projects." Cassidy began to laugh, obnoxiously loud. "That's right, her little project to make some improvements to _my _boys. Good to see you up and about kid. Though I wonder, who did Ryan want to stick around enough to have them put into a Vita-Chamber?" As David's hands clenched into fists, his former training instructor laughed again.

"David, who is this idiot?" Tenenbaum asked, evidently overhearing the conversation. Rather than answer, the former assassin fought the urge to hit something, to lash out at the nearest wall. That was something Cassidy would expect. Every day, the mad instructor would test David and the other boys' resolve, prodding at their weaknesses to see if they would buckle or retaliate. One of Cassidy's favorite past times would be thinking of new punishments for those who did.

"Cassidy," David growled. At last the bulkhead door opened, admitting him into Volcanus Flats. "He… trained us." With the airlock behind him, he hoped he wouldn't have to listen to any more of Cassidy's taunts.

"Oh yeah, before I lose the opportunity," Cassidy called, his voice echoing from the airlock. "I just thought I'd mention what a complete and total fucking failure you were. Tell Ryan I said hi."


	8. Chapter 8: Rumble with a Giant

Part 8: Rumble with a Giant

No sooner had Cassidy's voice ceased than the wall next to David's head exploded. A hand, plated with copper and as large as his head, shot through the wall. A set of stubby singers wrapped themselves around his helmet. With a violent jerk, David was yanked through the wood and plaster, and into someone's kitchen. It took his addled brain several moments to comprehend what had just happened, why the world had turned upside down.

As he tried to right himself, the Bouncer that had pulled him through the wall turned bringing the massive, lethal drill back, ready to turn the armored teen into a pile of gore. Twisting, David rolled to his feet as the drill slammed into the ground where he'd lain a second before. The Bouncer had struck with such force that the floor jumped. In the space of a breath, the former assassin regained his footing, planted a foot on the drill and launched himself at the iron clad giant.

David put every pound in his body behind a vicious blow that connected his knee to the monster's domed faceplate. A loud gonging noise echoed through the room, and the Big Daddy stumbled backwards, with a roar of frustration. Landing behind the massive creature, the former assassin caught a glimpse of the Little Sister as she scrambled for cover. Before the Bouncer could regain his balance, David grabbed two handfuls of the giant's air tank and threw his weight back. When he planted his foot behind the Big Daddy's knee, the monster was tilted off balance and began to fall.

With a thunderous boom, the Bouncer slammed into the floor, smashing the tiles. Rolling clear of the impact, the former assassin darted forward again, hoping to stab the giant. Standing over the fallen Big Daddy, David cocked his arm back, ready to send the ADAM hypodermic needle into the creature's face. Before he could strike, the iron clad monster reached up and grabbed him by his helmeted head yet again.

The floor seemed to leap at his face as the Bouncer yanked him head first into the ground. Pinning him to the ground, the giant in a diving suit lifted himself to his feet, using David's head to help push himself upright. Before the monster had a chance to bring his drill to bear, the former assassin twisted his entire body, bring his copper shod boot around to smash into the giant's faceplate.

As he tried to roll away, David felt vice like fingers close around his ankle. Suddenly he was lifted into the air, like he'd learned the secret to flight, before he crashed with spine bending ferocity into a support beam hidden in the ceiling. However, the Bouncer had let go, and when gravity came back, the former assassin landed several feet away from the iron clad giant.

As David slowly dragged himself to his feet, the Big Daddy squared off against him, not moving to attack yet. It was a short lull, a moment for the two combatants to catch their breath, to take stock of injuries, to size their opponent up for weaknesses. The armored teen felt like he'd jumped inside a massive light bulb socket, his body trembling with shock. His spine sent blinding lances of pain into his spine, while his head felt like the victim of an avalanche. As he took stock of his own injuries, David looked the Big Daddy over, scanning for a weakness he could exploit. He found it on one of the small circles of light that dotted the Bouncer's domed faceplate. There was a small crack in the hardened glass. It was small, tiny, and once the giant started moving, it would be next to impossible to hut, but it was all he'd get.

With a roar, the Big Daddy stomped toward the armored teen. His blood roaring in his ears, David charged at the rolling avalanche of a monster. As the Bouncer brought his drill up to strike, the former assassin took flight, curling his legs in and priming the ADAM needle in one fluid motion. David stepped on the iron clad giant's drill arm before slamming his weight into the cracked porthole. The ADAM needle glanced off, making a noise like a bell was being tolled and sending another hairline crack through the glass.

Before the former assassin had a chance to recover, the Bouncer swiped his drill across David's chest and stomach. If it had been more than a glancing blow, if David hadn't been wearing armor, if the Big Daddy hadn't just been hit in the head and had struck harder, or even more accurately, the armored teen would have been cleaved in two. As it was the rotating drill simply slammed into his torso. Even though the diving suit seemed undamaged, he felt his skin tear, his muscles rend themselves apart and, despite the noise of the drill, David was sure he'd heard his ribs breaking like kindling. Sudden, roaring pain shot through the teenager's chest and lungs, like someone had lit his torso on fire.

In a knee-jerk reflex, the former assassin let a blast of Electro-Bolt fly. With a concussive blast, the Plasmid sent the Bouncer reeling. As the monster roared in frustration, and before the adrenaline left David's body, the armored teen darted at the giant again. Even off balance, the Big Daddy still took a swing at him with that monstrous drill. If he'd charged straight in, David would have been cut in half from head to toe. Instead, he ducked low, sliding under the Bouncer's legs and just past the lethal blow.

Grabbing the giant's air tanks, the former assassin used his momentum to swing himself onto the monster's back. Before the iron clad giant could grab him, or bring the drill to bear, David slammed the ADAM needle into the cracked faceplate again. There was a resounding crunch as the needle crashed through the glass and into the Bouncer's skull. Roaring like a dying animal, the doomed protector crashed to the floor and finally lay still.

Barely able to move, David rolled away from the dead monstrosity. His body was broken, his muscles limp and numb. Gasping like a fish out of water, the teenager crawled across the floor, one hand on his broken ribs as hot blood seeped through his fingers. Leaning against the nearest wall, David managed to sit upright, though as he did his left leg and arm became dead weights. As his vision rolled into and out of focus, and his hearing faded to a deafening roar, he could see the Little Sister move from the hallway to kneel next to him. She desperately tried to shake David back to consciousness, her mouth moving like she was pleading with him. However, his world went black, and he slipped into unconsciousness.


	9. Chapter 9: Death and Life

Part 9: Death and Life

As blackness swallowed him, body and mind, David's mind went back to Pauper's Drop. It could have been any other day. Two weeks had passed since Alice's disappearance, her mother, half mad with grief, had moved away, hoping to find her lost daughter. That day was the last day David would spend as a child, the last day in a home, the last day as someone's son.

He could hear them coming up the stairs. The homes in the Drop had all the insulation of a paper hat, and sound carried from one building into the next. His mother must have heard them as well as she went about cooking dinner. Why hadn't she run? There were three, men by the sound of their voices, drunk and spliced to the gills.

Instead, she was pulling something from the oven when they kicked the door in, knocking it from its hinges. Before she even had a chance to scream, they had her thrown to the ground. One Splicer carried a crowbar. There was a sickening crack when the metal crashed into her skull.

This wasn't how it really happened. David hadn't been home, he'd been searching the streets for Alice, like he'd done every day since she'd vanished. By the time he'd gotten home, his mother was already dead, lying on the floor, blood polling under her head. She'd been staring at the door, and her eyes had seemed to lock upon his, transfixing him with their empty gaze. The Splicers had ripped her dress off, thrown it aside like a piece of trash.

When he'd gone to the police, they'd told him to stay there. In the end it had taken them three hours to get there. Three hours in that cold, empty apartment with his dead mother. Before he'd gone to get help, David had put a blanket over her body, hoping to provide some kind of dignity. More than once, he thought he heard her call out to him, a muffled whisper or groan that sounded like thunder in the silent apartment. Someone had later explained that it was just gas escaping her body, like burps, sounding as though they were breathing or moaning.

If he'd been there, if she couldn't have called out. Instead he'd been looking for Alice. He'd left his mother alone and she'd been raped and killed. And there was nothing he could do about it. In return, David was left alone. He had no other family in Rapture, no neighbors who would take him in. Rather than go to an orphanage, he lived on the streets.

By day he would scrounge for food in trash bins, steal what he could, and avoid the police who wanted to toss him into an orphanage. By night, he would flee from Splicers, drunks and the other homeless, all out to take what little he had left. If it hadn't been for Cassidy, for Andrew Ryan, David would have died, starved or murdered and left to rot in the street. However, Cassidy had found him, a pair of goons slipping a black bag over his head and hauling him away to enter into Ryan's secret group of problem solvers.

* * *

><p>With a hoarse scream David came back to consciousness, back to the present. His next breath was too deep and his ribs gave him a sharp reminder that they were still broken. As he fumbled with the clasps on his helmet, David could feel his gag reflex going into overtime. No sooner had the helmet clanged to the floor than his stomach heaved. Of course there was nothing in his stomach, so he merely bent double over, his chest crying in agony with every motion, dry heaving.<p>

Coughing, he at last managed to gain control of his body. Why was he being haunted by his past now? He'd never had any dreams of his mother or Alice while in Ryan's employ. Was it the Little sister? Something to do with the Plasmids he'd been taking?

As he brought his breathing under control, he felt a set of eyes boring holes through the back of his head. The Little Sister hadn't moved. She still stood close to him, looking like she both needed protection and wanted to give David some form of aid. Without warning a wave of blinding rage swamped his mind. If it hadn't been for the Little Sister program, if it hadn't been for ADAM, his mother would still be alive. No one would have forced him to join Cassidy's group of assassins, or made him try to kill Fontaine. He wouldn't have died!

David curled his fist so tight he could hear the fabric strain against his knuckles. There was a solution, the same solution the Splicers had initially intended for the young girl. He could harvest the sea slug, kill the little abomination and have access to all the ADAM her body contained.

As she stared at him, trusting, almost caring, he couldn't bring himself to do it. It wasn't this little girl who'd done those things. In the end she was a victim of those who were responsible. In David's mind that gave them more in common than they had differences. Taking a breath of air, which already had the metallic, poisonous tang to it, he ran his fingers through his short, bristly hair. Once again in control of his emotions he gingerly placed the copper helmet back on his head.

"David?" There was more tension in Tenenbaum's voice than usual. "What happened? I was thinking that you had expired." While she had stayed quiet during the fight, and what must have been his short nap afterwards, Tenenbaum's voice expressed genuine concern.

"Just… resting… my eyes," David wheezed in response. It didn't help his articulation any that he could barely breathe, which only added to his scarred vocal cords. "In bad… shape." Wincing with the effort, the armored teen lifted the Little Sister back onto his shoulders.

"Yes, I know this," Tenenbaum stated matter-of-factly. "I saw the Big Daddy swipe you with his drill. There is solution, but you are needing to trust me. Go to the Big Daddy." He obeyed, moving closer to the fallen creature that had, with his aid, destroyed someone's kitchen. "Use the ADAM needle on your arm to extract a sample of his blood."

For a moment, the wounded teenager hesitated. While any sympathy for the fallen protector had vanished when he had tried to kill him, David didn't want to mutilate the giant's corpse. "Trust me David. This is the only way." With an inward cringe, the former assassin stuck the ADAM needle into the Bouncer's already cold body. Then, he watched as the vial on his arm filled with a bright red liquid.

"Give the suit a moment," Tenenbaum instructed. Gasping as his ribs suddenly snapped back into place, fusing together as though nothing had happened, David jerked away from the Big Daddy. "Better yes?"

Letting out an awed huff of laughter, the armored teen nodded. It was a shock not to feel the agony he had only moments ago. Even the scrapes and bruises he garnered fighting against the Splicers had vanished as though they'd never happened.

"As I thought," Tenenbaum explained, her voice changing from concern to contemplative. "We knew the Big Sisters could extract ADAM directly from their victims. You cannot do this, but your sea slug, working with ADAM infused blood can be made to heal you faster. You understand, yes?" Frankly David didn't understand, nor did he care. At that moment the only thing that mattered to him was that he could move without crippling agony.

Moving past the dead protector, the armored teen stepped through the gaping hole his body had made and into the hallway. As he continued, so did Tenenbaum, "The Big Daddies require a small dose of ADAM to be grafted to their suits. The slug will be working much more efficiently if it can feed on blood that has Plasmids in it. Splicer blood is brimming with ADAM. If you are hurting, they would be the best place to find aid."

David gave a grunt in response, stopping in front of the air vent that had brought him to Volcanus Flats. Here, the Little Sister could hide and stay safe. "Your sea slug knows how to heal her, how to make her human again. This is what I am asking of you. Please, David, help them."


	10. Chapter 10: Zeus's Crown

Part 10: Zeus's Crown

"Place your hand on her head." Following the doctor's instruction, David gently se the girl on the floor and placed his hand on her forehead. There was a pulling sensation in his stomach and her eyes glowed brighter. In fact, the longer David held her head, the brighter the room seemed to get, like the sun was rising for the first time a mile below the ocean. As the pull became stronger the world faded to a blinding white.

When his vision cleared, the strange pulling sensation gone, the Little Sister stood before him, her eyes normal. Even her complexion had been altered, more color in her cheeks, her skin less gaunt. For the first time since David had found her, the young girl looked human. She smiled at him, the gesture bellying a greater sadness behind the gratitude in her eyes.

"Thank you," she whispered and turned to climb into the air vent. Giving her a boost, David felt warmth in his stomach. It was more than a physical sense of accomplishment. It was like he'd had a drink of hot coffee, the heat beginning in his stomach, rising from his esophagus to reach his heart where it spread to every limb.

"You are having ADAM now." Turning away from the vent, the former assassin waited to hear what Tenenbaum would need from next. "Nearby you will be finding a Gather's Garden. Go there."

Finding the Gather's Garden was simple. These were the hubs of Rapture's Plasmid based economy. One of these small machines had the ability to completely alter someone's genetic makeup. They could go from nothing to a god with the touch of a button, as long as they had the ADAM. Unfortunately, the Gather's Garden in Volcanus Flats was in a severe state of disrepair. It looked like a Splicer had taken a crowbar to the machine, leaving it covered in dents and cracks. In the end, the Plasmid vending machine yielded only a single vial.

"That, David, is Telekinesis." Using the syringe that came with the vial, David injected himself with the Plasmid. Unlike Electro-Bolt, which had felt like a kick in the stomach, this dose of genetic altering material, left the teen with a sense of euphoria. As the sensation faded, David looked at a nearby piece of rubble. With a whim, he sent it flying through the air.

"Now go to this structure's train station," Tenenbaum instructed. Following the dilapidated signs labeled, "Metro," David soon found his way to the Volcanus Flats train yard. Like the one in Fontaine Futuristics and Gaia Plaza, this station was a simple construction. There were two, massive doors that led to the pressurized exits, allowing the trains to dive under the surface before they made their trip through the ocean. As he entered the station, David felt a twinge of anticipation. Perhaps now Tenenbaum would tell him her plans, the price for his resurrection.

"I told you before that I needed your help, that the little ones needed your help. Unfortunately we do not have time to rescue the Little Sisters one at a time. I believe Rapture will soon collapse entirely. I am needing you to take control of what remains of the city. To do this, you are needing to be in Ryan's home." David gave a soft whistle of awe. He'd heard stories of Ryan's home, a small palace that occupied the peak of Zeus's Crown. Of course getting there would be another obstacle entirely.

"Thankfully, Ryan was not a public man. He had his own, personal train car to travel through his city. Go to the control room." As he followed Tenenbaum's instructions, David felt another twinge of excitement at the thought of riding in Ryan's private train car. He could still remember the occasional trip with his mother in public train cars. They were cramped, filled to capacity with just enough air to keep the people within from suffocating. However, Ryan's car was supposed to massive, large enough to hold a banquet with three women from the Garden of Eden to wait on him hand and foot.

"You will need to access the main control panel," Tenenbaum continued. Of course, those women would be long dead now, or spliced beyond sanity. "Give me a moment." David waited patiently, imagining himself as the king of Rapture, being fed peeled grapes by his own troop of maids hired from the Garden of Eden.

"There, you are having access now." Snapping himself from his fantasy, the former assassin began to wonder where Tenenbaum was hiding that she would have access to the train controls. "There is switch marked 'Ryan.' Find that and turn it."

After a moment, Ryan's personal train car pulled into the station. As he had anticipated, the car was a shamble of former luxury. The once gold-plated door frames and windowsills and turned green with age. Cobwebs hung from every corner, and the velvet red carpet had turned to a grey streak of slime and mold.

With the train car moving, David found the largest, most comfortable chair and sank into it. As he propped his legs on the nearest ottoman, the teen helped himself to a bottle of Merlot that sat next to the throne of satin and velvet. After removing his helmet, he bit into the cork before spitting it across the train. _This one's on you,_ David thought in a mock toast to his former employer. He took a deep swig and promptly spat it back up. The ten years or so of aging hadn't improved the wine's taste, making it bitter and dry. He didn't want Tenenbaum to know how poorly he had reacted to the alcohol, so he turned his helmet to face the front of the train car while he darted to the back. Once in Ryan's personal washroom, David's stomach wretched, forcing what little liquid had made it down his esophagus, into the toilet.

His little escapade into luxury over, David consigned himself to simply waiting for the short ride to end, in one of Ryan's chairs. The train had left the bowels of Rapture, spiraling up Zeus's Crown along a rail that the former assassin was sure had been put in place for Ryan's use only. Placing his helmet back on his head, David entered the height of Rapture's architecture.

"This is the Council hall," Tenenbaum explained. "At one point this was where Ryan met with Rapture's elite to form the laws that governed the city." Marveling at the impressive structure, David couldn't help but feel awed. The room where the train had stopped connected into a massive, domed hall. Wooden lecterns and podiums ringed the room, panels where the elite could argue with one another. At the far end, higher than the others, a single podium stood, adorned with a plaque of Andrew Ryan. Above, the ceiling was adorned with paintings of Greek gods and goddesses, though years of neglect had left them faded and barely recognizable.

What caught David's eye, however, was a section to his left, where the roof and floor had collapsed. Apparently something extremely large had fallen through both the ceiling and the floor, and, as he moved closer, it had continued to fall, punching a tunnel through the massive building. Oddly enough, a lone statue, a goddess of some sort, a scythe in one hand while her other stretched over the pit, had narrowly avoided destruction.

"Several floors above, you will find Ryan's home, and, if my guess is accurate, this Cassidy person as well." A shallow smile crept over David's lips at the thought of meeting his training instructor again. He'd been quietly hoping he'd have a chance to find Cassidy and return some small token of the pain and torture the man had visited on David and the other boys.

Still curious, he moved closer to the pit, wondering what had caused so much damage. When he stared up, water dripped onto his faceplate from a skylight that seemed to hang miles above him. As he turned to look down, his eyes swept the statue at the edge again. As he looked into the pit, he wondered what Greek goddess would need a pair of scythes that looked so wicked and sharp. _Wait a minute. Didn't she only have one scythe a minute ago?_ David thought, snapping his head back to the statue. She was gone. "Oh shi-" the armored teen began. Before he could finish, something hooked his leg and sent him tumbling over the edge, and into the gaping maw of the abyss.


	11. Chapter 11: Induction

Part 11: Induction

The air ripped past David's head as he tried vainly to right himself. A sudden, blinding ripped into his body as his hip caught on a piece of broken piping. The wayward piece of steel sent the teenager spinning, tumbling end over end. He clipped his should and arm on more debris before he came to a sudden and jarring halt.

For a moment, David was content to lie there, face up, struggling to breathe. Finally he worked up the energy to look at his surroundings. When he turned his head he found that he hadn't hit the bottom of the pit, but had struck an outcropping, a narrow ledge that had survived whatever catastrophe that had made the hole in the first place.

When he tried to roll, and relieve his aching back, the narrow slab of tile and concrete folded beneath him. David's stomach leapt into his throat as, once again, he fell into darkness. Now in free fall, he could see the floor as it seemed to fly up to meet him. The last few yards jumped to crash into his face, sending his mind into darkness.

* * *

><p>David's unconscious mind returned to the day he'd been kidnapped. It had happened so fast. One moment he'd been alone, hunting through someone's garbage for something to eat, the next someone had pinned both of his arms behind his back. Someone slipped a black bag over his head before a painful splash of agony had put him under. When next he'd come to, the bag was removed and he found himself in a dark room with a single glaring light. There were another thirty or so boys, David's age, in a line to either side of him, all of them blinking in the light. Ringing the room were another ten guards, all dressed in black.<p>

"What's going on?" One of the other boys asked. "Where are we?" With the arrogance of a small mind that clung to authority, one of the men dressed in black strode behind the boy. There was an audible crack as the man hit the back of the boy's knees with a short baton. The speaker dropped to the floor, with a cry of pain and alarm.

"You will speak when spoken to," the man in black shouted grabbing a fistful of the boy's hair. The malice and hatred in the man's voice, combined with the startling violence against an unarmed youth, made David's eyes go wide.

"But I don't-," before the talkative boy could finish, the guard smashed his baton against his cheek. The sound of bones snapping under the force of the man's blow echoed like a gunshot in the quiet of the room. The aggression and pitilessness of the man in black instantly bred compliance and obedience.

They were ordered to strip down to their underwear as a man in a white lab coat moved from one boy to the next, examining them. The boy next to David had, at some point, broken his leg and the break hadn't been set properly. This left him favoring his other leg.

When the man in the white coat examined the malformed limb, he turned to one of the guards and said, "Unfit." Without pause the guard strode to the boy in question, put a pistol to his head and pulled the trigger. As the boy fell to the floor, David forced his legs to stay where they were. As his mind fought between running and staying put, one of the other boys made a break for the door. He made it three steps before one of the men in black, the same one who'd executed the "unfit" boy, fired again. The boy's body crumpled like a marionette with its strings cut.

His body shaking, David followed the physician's orders, any thought of trying to escape completely smothered. Not only was escape evidently impossible, he had nothing to go back to. His mother was dead, his friends had abandoned him when he'd become a homeless orphan. As terrifying as it was, this was his new future, and whether he liked it or not, he would survive it.

In the end, while David escaped execution, another four were deemed unfit and shot. The next three days became more of the same, physical examinations that tested their strength, stamina, speed and agility, mental aptitude tests that explored their ability to adept and think under pressure. At the end of every test, more boys were executed. Those three days David pushed himself harder than he thought he was capable of. He wasn't the fastest, or the strongest, never at the front of the pack, but he survived, he stayed alive.

When the last test was complete, just when David was sure he would die of exhaustion, he and the others were ordered to a laboratory. One by one, the other boys would go through a closed door. On the other side, David could hear screaming, shouting, pleas for mercy. None of the boys came back through the door. Either there was another exit to the lab, or none of them were surviving.

When it was David's turn, he found himself lain on a table, his arms, legs and head held in place by metal bindings and surrounded by men in white lab coats. Without warning a funnel was jammed into his mouth so hard it triggered his gag reflex. The next thing he knew something slimy was crawling its way down his esophagus.

The next few hours were a blur of color and light, his body trying to acclimate to whatever had been done to him. When he began to surface toward consciousness, the bindings still holding him in place, he found a physician standing over him, holding a long hypodermic needle. Without a word of warning the lab rat stuck the needle into David's abdomen. As his stomach flared in agony his eyesight went dark.

* * *

><p>Suddenly, the teenager was no longer in a laboratory in Rapture. He was in a cold trench, a bolt action rifle in his hands. "Les voila," a man shouted. Though David had never spoken a word of French in his life, he understood the man as clear as day. <em>Here they come!<em> After three long, cold months in the trench, David was ready for the Austrians. As the artillery boomed around him, he climbed to his feet and propped his rifle over the edge of the trench. A staggered line of men were running forward, charging across the ravaged no-man's land. His rifle thumped against his shoulder as he fired. In response, one of the charging Austrians fell back, a spray of red mist gushing from his throat.

* * *

><p>Without warning, David came screaming back to the lab, the trenches of World War One, The Great War, The War to End all Wars, was stuck in his brain. Four years of mind numbing horror and violence, bloody trench fights and nighttime raids were etched into his memory as though he'd been there himself. Just as his brain was beginning to cope with the sudden wealth of information, another flare of agony erupted from his stomach as another needle was pushed into his torso.<p>

* * *

><p>Cold ocean spray splashed against his face. "Remember your training, and you will make it through this!" David turned to the speaker, his sergeant, as German bullets began to hammer the tiny landing craft. The front of the boat disappeared, splashing into the water. A string of bullets ripped into the sergeant, as the landing craft suddenly became alive with hot lead. David gripped his Thompson to his chest and dove over the side, hoping the water wasn't too deep.<p>

* * *

><p>A pleading cry escaped the teen's lips as he came, once again back to the lab. Two years in France, Holland and finally, Germany had become lodged within his mind. He'd fought the Nazi's from one end of Europe to the other, ruthlessly turning men into corpses along the road to Berlin. <em>This is impossible, <em>David thought uselessly. _I've never even held a gun, let alone killed someone!_ No matter how hard he tried to deny it, he could still remember executing controlled bursts with a Thompson, using his bolt action as a club to cave in men's heads, and what amounted to more than half a decade fighting against the Nazis and Austrians.

* * *

><p>With a start, David awoke in a puddle of ocean water. He wasn't in Ryan's labs. He wasn't being experimented on, being turned into a weapon. Back in the present, he found his body was a wreck of injuries and pain. His left shoulder and hip were a testament to his continued existence, as breaking them on the way down had slowed him enough to keep his body in one piece when it slammed into the hard marble at the bottom. Meanwhile, his back head, and ribs were a testament to how hard he'd still managed to hit the ground. Pressing his gloved hands against the floor, David brought himself to a kneeling position.<p>

He turned to an ominous thump that filled the quiet room. Standing before the all but broken teenager, a Splicer in a masquerade mask gave him a lopsided grin. In each hand the man held a short, farming scythe.

"I'm going to gut your ass, Fishbowl!" With a hate filled growl, David brought himself to his feet. The memories that didn't belong to him, the ones that did, his past and this piece of filth mocking him in the present had pushed him beyond reason. With a roar, the Splicer charged forward, swinging both scythes to cut the armored teen's head from his shoulders.

Calmly, David swept the blades aside with practiced ease, pulling the Splicer forward and off balance. Even injured, he outmatched the untrained Plasmid user in strength, speed and cunning. With the Splicer's arms pinned together under the former assassin's armpit, David rammed his ADAM hypodermic needle into the man's heart. As near as they were, the armored teen could feel the life fly away from the Splicer.

As he felt the sea slug in his stomach go to work, feeding off the ADAM rich blood, David could hear more Splicers making their way down to him. There was a painful crack as his shoulder popped back into the socket, an indescribable itching as his tibia fused back together. He watched, as the last of his more impressive injuries faded, as more Splicers tumbled gracefully down, through the massive hole in the ceiling.

As they landed around him, waiting for their numbers to grow, he took the opportunity to take in his surroundings. He was surprised to find how close he had come to impaling himself on the cause of the structural failure that had destroyed so much of Zeus's Crown. It was a massive chandelier, easily as big, if not bigger than, Ryan's personal train car, a monolithic golden creation that had a series of arms holding chains. Something must have caused it to fall, sending it crashing into the banquet hall where it rested.

The room was large, mostly empty, save for the pile of rubble where the chandelier lay in ruin. Around the edges, a balcony stood, overlooking the massive, open, room providing several small alcoves where David could either take temporary shelter, or become cornered. Lighting the room was a massive, glass window that showed a spectacular view of Rapture and the ocean floor.

Throwing the long dead Splicer aside, and feeling better than he had since Tenenbaum had revived him, David clenched his fists. At last the Splicer who had so cleverly mimicked a statue landed gracefully at the forefront of the pack of killers. For a brief moment, the two sides stared at each other, appraising their opponent's strengths and weaknesses. It was the last calm moment in that room for a very long time.


	12. Chapter 12: Surrounded

Part 12: surrounded

Ducking beneath a pair of razor sharp scythes that were aimed to take his head from his shoulders, David brought his fist up and into the attacker's stomach, feeling the Splicer's bones crunch under the force of the assault. Keeping his body moving, the former assassin swept his other hand down, slamming his palm into the back of the Splicer's skull with enough force to send the man to the ground. Before David had a chance to recover, another attacker launched himself through the air, aiming to cut the armored teen in half.

Snatching the Splicer's arm out of the air, the former assassin rolled the man, turning his momentum against him, and flinging the attacker into the nearest wall. While David was stronger, faster and more precise with his blows and movements, there were a lot of Splicers. He'd only managed to stave off death by constantly moving, making sure he engaged his opponent one or two at a time.

"David? What is happening? Where are you?" Responding to Tenenbaum's voice with a grunt, David took a running start toward the fallen chandelier. "I turned away for a moment. What happened?"

"I fell," David responded as he tried to regain his balance. Before he could, the former assassin was, yet again, set upon by a pair of attackers. One of them was the plaster covered Splicer who had knocked him into the abyss only moments ago. With a flick of his wrist, the armored teen sent a ball of Electro-Bolt into her partner, the resulting spray of red giving David a sadistic sense of satisfaction.

The world seemed to slow as the plaster covered Splicer tumbled through the air, turning her body into a spinning windmill of flashing blades. The former assassin timed his movements and, at the last second, dove to the ground, rolling under the Splicer's spinning arms. Coming to his feet, David brought his elbow back, guiding it by instinct rather than sight. He was rewarded with a happy crunch when the copper plated limb crashed into something.

"How far?" Tenenbaum asked, either ignorant or indifferent to his current predicaments. David gave a harsh rasp that was his laughter, once again setting his eyes on the chandelier. The doctor gave a loud, exasperated sigh. "Right. Give me a moment."

The smile that Tenenbaum's inquiry had put on his face vanished when he saw a trio of Splicers running toward him. Turning to the chandelier, David leapt into the air. His leap carried him halfway to the nearest foothold, and effigy of Andrew Ryan. Still air born, the armored teen grabbed one of the chain-bearing arms and used it to cartwheel onto Ryan's gold plated head. Whether it was the sea slug or Lamb's suit that gave him his new found agility, David didn't care. The feat of acrobatics had given the high ground and the Splicers the time and space needed to get ahead of one another. The closest had slammed a pair of scythes into the arm where the armor clad teen's hand had been only a breath earlier.

Forgoing tact and grace for raw power, David shot forward, driving one copper toed boot into the Splicer's face. Before the other two could retaliate, he tucked his arms in and fell between a pair of golden arms. Inside the cage that had been created by the chandelier, the former assassin was forced to immediately dodge backwards. A Splicer had stuck his arm between the arms, his blade passing within millimeters of David's chest.

Feeling the edge of exhaustion in his movements, the former assassin grabbed the Splicer's arm before slamming his elbow into the limb, breaking it at the joint. As the Splicer tried vainly to pull away, David planted one boot on the gold plated chandelier and yanked as hard as he could. The Splicer gave a gurgle as his face smashed into the one of the chain bearing arms. As he tried desperately to control his breathing, the armored clad teen used the chandelier as a base to launch himself feet first at the third Splicer.

Even though his full weight landed on the attacker's neck, David could still hear the man's labored breath when the pair came to a stop, the armored teen standing on the Splicer's chest and throat. Before he had a chance to rectify the situation, something slammed into him with what felt like the force of a runaway freight train. All at once another trio of Splicers had the armored teen pinned, one on each arm, and the third holding his legs.

Fighting down a panicked scream, David rolled his weight to one side. It was enough for him to free his right arm. With his newfound freedom, the former assassin brought his elbow into the Splicer that had been holding him to the floor. As the man's ribs cracked, David reached out with Telekinesis and brought a small piece of rubble into the man holding his other arm.

With his arms freed, the former assassin grabbed the third Splicer by the shoulders and head-butted him. The copper-plated sphere that encased David's head rung out like a bell as it made contact with his assailant's head. Before he had a chance to climb to his feet, someone took hold of his air tank, spun him and sent him sprawling toward the massive window. The former assassin managed to turn so that he hit the reinforced glass with his back rather than his head. Despite this, his head still bounced off the inside of his helmet when he slammed into the window.

Gasping for air, and blinking away spots in the momentary lull in the fight, David took stock of his opponents and his injuries. He'd left more than half a dozen of them on the ground, most of them dead, the others completely incapacitated. However, at least another twenty still remained, all of them glaring at the armored teen with raw, seething hatred. At their forefront, just as when they had started only minutes ago, the plaster covered Splicer stood ready to attack, her right eye a ruined mess of gore and blood.

However, unlike when this had first started, David was on his last leg. He'd was beaten and bruised, his legs and arms feeling like jelly. He was leaning against the glass knowing that soon they'd mob him, and rip him to pieces. The question became: who would go first? While they would certainly win, crushing the armored teen under sheer numbers, the first to attempt would surly lose their life.

"Okay, I am having solution. I know how you can get back to Ryan's home." David grunted in response, trying to determine which Splicer would attack first. He wondered if Tenenbaum was aware of the situation, if she was paying any attention to the mob of Splicers that surrounded him. If she was, she'd realize that he wouldn't make it another ten feet, let alone back to the top of Zeus's Crown. "You need to get to the nearest airlock and…oh."

"One moment," David rasped. When Tenenbaum had said airlock, a plan had begun to form in his mind. Holding his left hand up so that it was visible, he let a ball of electricity form there. The reaction among the Splicers was visible, as they took a hesitant step back. The plaster covered Splicer was the one who understood first.

"NO!" She charged forward, ready to cut David down the middle. Before she could get close enough, he pivoted and slammed the ball of electricity into the reinforced glass behind him. The resulting explosion knocked the armor clad teen to one side, sending him into the questionable shelter made by the overhanging balcony. With a sickening crack, a hairline splinter formed in the glass. Then, a chunk the size of a basketball shot from the window followed by a jet of water. At last the heavy window gave way completely and the weight of the ocean came crashing into the banquet hall.

Vaulting over a lamp that hung from the wall, David propelled himself onto the second floor balcony as water rushed in behind him. A few of the Splicer managed similar feats, but most were caught in the sudden torrent of water and were crushed against the far wall. The room was suddenly filled with screams as the Splicers tried vainly to keep their heads above the water as it sloshed and churned.

Still alive and seething, the plaster-covered Splicer ran at David, her eyes seething with hatred. With a smirk, the armored teen leaned backwards, over the railing and splashed into the water below. For a terrifying moment, he was caught in the violent current. Then, the heavy copper and spun brass took hold and pulled his boots to the floor. Beneath the churning madness above, it was quiet, still. He couldn't hear the Splicers' screams or the sounds of their bodies being crashed against the walls.

It took a great deal of effort to pull his exhausted body from the building and into the ocean. There he let the icy waters calm his frantic heartbeat and relax his shaking muscles. Once outside, he looked up at the building he'd just left. Floor by floor, the few lights went out, plunging the building into darkness. Soon only the topmost floors remained lit, the lights going from Ryan's train station to the peak of Zeus's Crown.

"That was very good David," Tenenbaum said softly. David couldn't help but smile at the validation. "You will be needing to make your way to The Muse's Inspiration now. Pan to your left." As he obeyed, the armored teen wondered if at some point he'd ever get a chance to rest his weary body. "There, from there you will be able to get to Ryan's home." David whistled, awed by the looming structure. It was close enough for Ryan to go to and from in a short time, and built like a massive opera house. Most impressive were the windows that lined the top of the short and squat building. Even from a distance, David was sure they were at least two floors high, lit by flickering light.

"I am needing you to hurry, David." Doing as he was told, the armored teen began to press forward, through the ocean. "Another little one is needing your assistance."


	13. Chapter 13: Muse's Inspiration

Part 13: Muse's Inspiration

Despite the restrictions the ocean put on his movements, David felt more relaxed than strained, as though he were taking a stroll. It gave his body enough time to recuperate from the frenetic and frenzied chaos he'd just left. Even so, it only took him a few moments to reach the airlock to The Muse's Inspiration. All the same, he still felt like he was moving too slowly. It seemed like a great deal of time had passed since Tenenbaum had mentioned that a Little Sister was in danger.

Once the water had drained from the airlock, the thunderclaps of gunfire suddenly echoed through the small room, accompanied by the earth shaking roar of a Big Daddy. As he darted down the narrow, velvet covered halls, he was met with a high pitched scream, a Little Sister's cry for help.

"You idiot," a man shouted as David burst into the opera house. "She's no good to us dead!" From the second floor balcony he could see the entire theater, a massive, domed structure with seats and pews circling around a stage. On the circular stage a Big Daddy, similar in size and shape to the Rosie he'd fought in Volcanus Flats, yet wholly different, knelt next to a small form. In one of his enormous hands, the protector held a Little Sister, her eyes blank and staring, a thin line of blood running from her nose to her chin. Around the two of them, were half dozen bodies, Splicer's who'd evidently met their end at the barrel of the Big Daddy's rivet gun.

A group of Splicers were trying to make to make a hasty exit, when the center of the staged glowed with purple light. There was a flash of purple smoke before a second armor clad figure appeared out of thin air. At first David thought he was looking at some strange copy of his own diving suit, the narrow frame, and general design matching his own. However, the armor was lighter, less reinforced, and the wearer, while covered from head to foot in spun copper and brass, had a distinctive feminine outline.

The newcomer gave a screech that threatened to shatter every pane of glass in Rapture before attacking the retreating Splicers with feral bloodlust. An ADAM needle that could have substituted for a harpoon sprouted from one of the retreating Splicers, the new comer lifting him into the air before tossing him into the seats scattered throughout the theater.

"That, David, is a Big Sister," Tenenbaum explained, as David looked on in awe. As though she were lighter than air, the armor clad killer leapt through the air to land on another of Splicer. Standing on the dead man, her hand began to glow ominously. With unerring speed and accuracy, the Big Sister sent one bolt of fire after another into the retreating Splicers, turning them to ash.

"They were once little ones. Once they were old enough they were turned into killers by Sophia Lamb and Gil Alexander." Only a small portion of David's mind was listening to Tenenbaum's voice. The rest of his focus was on staying out of sight. "They are half mad, and feed off of ADAM."

As though proving the doctor's point, the Big Sister turned her attention on the Big Daddy. With the same ferocity that she had attacked the Splicers with, the ADAM fueled killer charged toward the protector. She gestured and a chunk of the stage ripped itself free. With a wave of her hands, the Big Sister sent the massive clump of metal and wood flying. The Big Daddy nimbly rolled aside, deftly tossing a small grenade-like device at his opponent. The Big sister dodged away from the device with ease, vanishing in a cloud of purple light.

When she reappeared, it was in the air over the Big Daddy. She came down with enough force to send the protector to one knee. With one, punishing blow, the ADAM fueled killer drove the harpoon-like needle on her left arm into the armored giant's helmet. There was a muffled crunch, and the protector collapsed.

As the Big Sister screeched again, her head swiveling as though she were searching for another opponent, David began to cautiously backtrack. He had no intention of fighting the armored killer who had just dispatched a dozen Splicers and a Big Daddy with such ease. However, when he turned toward the exit, he found a pair of Splicers, two who had apparently managed to survive the ADAM fueled killer.

"Oh shit," one of them moaned when he saw David. Moving faster than the eye could follow, the  
>Big Sister leapt up to the second floor, over the balcony, and landed behind the two survivors. Despite that she was a teenager, her copper plated boots and helmet left her looking down at the two Splicers. Though he could no more see her face than she could his, David could sense the contempt she had for the two survivors, see it in her body language, hear it as her hands clenched tight enough to earn a groan from the fabric over her knuckles.<p>

Like lighting she wrapped her left arm around one Splicer's neck. Rolling her weight back, the ADAM fueled killer snapped the man's neck. With the same fluid motion, she then skewered the other, making them both look like playthings. As both men fell to the ground, David hoped she would sense the sea slug in his stomach, the mutual bond he'd shared with the Little Sister. Instead, the armored killer let out another screech and barreled forward, like a charging bull covered in armor.

Taking a step back, David reached out with Telekinesis and grabbed a nearby chair. He flung it at the Big Sister with every ounce of his will. The chair slammed into the ADAM fueled killer with a resonating crash. However, it didn't even slow her down. She rolled with the blow, pivoting so that the chair all but deflected off her shoulder. Without breaking her stride, she kicked off from the wall, and put both copper shod shoes into his chest.

David was sent flying toward the stage. One of his boots slapped against the railing before he crashed into the stage hard enough to splinter wood and leave a man sized crater. As nimble as she had been while fighting the Splicers, the Big Sister tumbled to the stage, her boots sliding across its polished surface. As the former assassin rolled to his feet, she watched, as though waiting for him to regain his balance, like she was playing with him.

No sooner had David regained his footing than she shot across the stage like a bullet from a gun. Before she could pin him like a fly in collection with her ADAM needle, the former assassin dove forward. He drove his shoulder into her knee. While he rolled beneath her, she s sprawled toward the other end of the stage, though not before smacking his faceplate with one of her boots.

As he rolled to his feet, the Big Sister vanished in a flash of light. He heard a thump of boots landing behind him before a sudden blinding pain shot through his sternum. The Big Sister's ADAM needle seemed to suddenly grow from his shoulder, a small pillar of steel sprouting from just under the heavy, spun copper that protected his chest. David fought down a scream of panic and agony, instead using the adrenaline that crashed through his system to charge a ball of Electro-Bolt. When he grabbed the needle that stuck through his body with the same hand, the ball of electricity discharged through the metal and into the Big Sister.

All at once the needle slid free of his shoulder and the thump of the ADAM fueled killer slamming into the far wall reached his ears. Free of the needle, David turned to face the seething Big Sister. Already on her feet, she charged him. This time, he was too slow and she tackled him to the ground. Holding his arms down with her knees, the Big Sister cocked her arm back, ready to send her harpoon of a hypodermic needle crashing through his faceplate.

Throwing all his weight to one side, David managed to put his opponent off balance. As she tried to reassert her center of gravity onto his chest, he brought his copper plated helmet up to smash into her faceplate. She rolled backward, pushing against David's chest with both feet. As he was sent skittering across the floor, she gracefully cartwheeled to her feet. Back on her feet, the Big Sister's hand began to glow ominously.

Grunting and slipping in his own blood, David scrambled away as bolts of fire slammed into the stage. He dove from the stage and was sent flying once again by a blast of heat. As another bolt of fire came screaming through the air, he rolled behind the nearest support column. No sooner had he climbed back to his feet than the air in front of the former assassin began to glow purple.

Knowing what was coming next, David launched himself forward. As the Big Sister appeared, he slammed the ADAM gathering hypodermic into her chest. His momentum carried both of them into the nearby wall. Using one hand to hold her arm at bay, David pinned her other with his shoulder as she fought violently to free herself. However, the former assassin knew it was too late. His aim had been perfect, and he'd planted all six inches of steel directly into her heart. As her blood spattered across his arm and chest, hot enough for him to feel it through his suit, the Big Sister kicked, trying to free herself.

When she stopped moving, he let her slid to the floor as gracefully as his shaking muscles would allow. In the years since he'd been inducted into Ryan's assassins, David had killed many people, even more since Tenenbaum had brought him back to life. He'd never felt the gut wrenching pity and self-loathing that clutched at his heart as he looked at the lifeless Big Sister. In creation, purpose, and self-control she and David had more in common than not. They'd both lost their childhoods, been forced to kill in others' names. The only difference now, was that David had regained control of his will. He wasn't forced to go on any longer, which made his actions all the harder to swallow.

As he turned away, the armored teen heard a soft, muffled voice cry out from behind him. Not wanting to, and dreading every moment he turned back to the Big Sister. As his extremities went numb from blood loss, David knelt and unclasped the woman's helmet before removing it altogether.

"Please…" she gasped, her black hair falling like a halo around her head. She was no older than David, her features defined by the fear and sadness that must have been consuming her. "Please… I don't understand…" David grasped her hand, hoping to give her some comfort. He recognized her condition, the same kind as he'd been in the night Fontaine had so casually murdered him. She was dying. Her body beyond the point of no return, but the sea slug wouldn't let her go so easily. "Why.. why can't I see?"

Her green eyes pleaded with David to help her, to do something. _Oh God,_ David thought. _I don't know what to do._ A hard lump formed in his throat as his mind raced desperately for some solution. Granted she had tried to kill him, but she had no more control over that than the Big Daddies. The ADAM fueled killer was gone, replaced by a scared girl who knew she was going to die.

"It's going to be okay," David whispered, trying to comfort her. She gave one last struggled gasp before becoming still, her eyes dilating. Gently, he laid her hand on her chest before standing, his body shaking with angst and guilt. For the second time in only a few hours, David wished he'd been left to die. He wished that Tenenbaum hadn't brought him back. There was too much pain, too much misery in Rapture for him to bear.

"I'm sorry David." The sorrow in Tenenbaum's voice seemed to pull some of the weight from David's shoulders, as though she were sharing his sadness, making his burdens her own. "Please, I know you can do nothing to save her, but there are others. Turning from the Big Sister took more energy than David thought he had left. "You can set them all free, but only if you are making it to Zeus's Crown."


	14. Chapter 14: Price Paid

Part 8: Rumble with a Giant

No sooner had Cassidy's voice ceased than the wall next to David's head exploded. A hand, plated with copper and as large as his head, shot through the wall. A set of stubby singers wrapped themselves around his helmet. With a violent jerk, David was yanked through the wood and plaster, and into someone's kitchen. It took his addled brain several moments to comprehend what had just happened, why the world had turned upside down.

As he tried to right himself, the Bouncer that had pulled him through the wall turned bringing the massive, lethal drill back, ready to turn the armored teen into a pile of gore. Twisting, David rolled to his feet as the drill slammed into the ground where he'd lain a second before. The Bouncer had struck with such force that the floor jumped. In the space of a breath, the former assassin regained his footing, planted a foot on the drill and launched himself at the iron clad giant.

David put every pound in his body behind a vicious blow that connected his knee to the monster's domed faceplate. A loud gonging noise echoed through the room, and the Big Daddy stumbled backwards, with a roar of frustration. Landing behind the massive creature, the former assassin caught a glimpse of the Little Sister as she scrambled for cover. Before the Bouncer could regain his balance, David grabbed two handfuls of the giant's air tank and threw his weight back. When he planted his foot behind the Big Daddy's knee, the monster was tilted off balance and began to fall.

With a thunderous boom, the Bouncer slammed into the floor, smashing the tiles. Rolling clear of the impact, the former assassin darted forward again, hoping to stab the giant. Standing over the fallen Big Daddy, David cocked his arm back, ready to send the ADAM hypodermic needle into the creature's face. Before he could strike, the iron clad monster reached up and grabbed him by his helmeted head yet again.

The floor seemed to leap at his face as the Bouncer yanked him head first into the ground. Pinning him to the ground, the giant in a diving suit lifted himself to his feet, using David's head to help push himself upright. Before the monster had a chance to bring his drill to bear, the former assassin twisted his entire body, bring his copper shod boot around to smash into the giant's faceplate.

As he tried to roll away, David felt vice like fingers close around his ankle. Suddenly he was lifted into the air, like he'd learned the secret to flight, before he crashed with spine bending ferocity into a support beam hidden in the ceiling. However, the Bouncer had let go, and when gravity came back, the former assassin landed several feet away from the iron clad giant.

As David slowly dragged himself to his feet, the Big Daddy squared off against him, not moving to attack yet. It was a short lull, a moment for the two combatants to catch their breath, to take stock of injuries, to size their opponent up for weaknesses. The armored teen felt like he'd jumped inside a massive light bulb socket, his body trembling with shock. His spine sent blinding lances of pain into his spine, while his head felt like the victim of an avalanche. As he took stock of his own injuries, David looked the Big Daddy over, scanning for a weakness he could exploit. He found it on one of the small circles of light that dotted the Bouncer's domed faceplate. There was a small crack in the hardened glass. It was small, tiny, and once the giant started moving, it would be next to impossible to hut, but it was all he'd get.

With a roar, the Big Daddy stomped toward the armored teen. His blood roaring in his ears, David charged at the rolling avalanche of a monster. As the Bouncer brought his drill up to strike, the former assassin took flight, curling his legs in and priming the ADAM needle in one fluid motion. David stepped on the iron clad giant's drill arm before slamming his weight into the cracked porthole. The ADAM needle glanced off, making a noise like a bell was being tolled and sending another hairline crack through the glass.

Before the former assassin had a chance to recover, the Bouncer swiped his drill across David's chest and stomach. If it had been more than a glancing blow, if David hadn't been wearing armor, if the Big Daddy hadn't just been hit in the head and had struck harder, or even more accurately, the armored teen would have been cleaved in two. As it was the rotating drill simply slammed into his torso. Even though the diving suit seemed undamaged, he felt his skin tear, his muscles rend themselves apart and, despite the noise of the drill, David was sure he'd heard his ribs breaking like kindling. Sudden, roaring pain shot through the teenager's chest and lungs, like someone had lit his torso on fire.

In a knee-jerk reflex, the former assassin let a blast of Electro-Bolt fly. With a concussive blast, the Plasmid sent the Bouncer reeling. As the monster roared in frustration, and before the adrenaline left David's body, the armored teen darted at the giant again. Even off balance, the Big Daddy still took a swing at him with that monstrous drill. If he'd charged straight in, David would have been cut in half from head to toe. Instead, he ducked low, sliding under the Bouncer's legs and just past the lethal blow.

Grabbing the giant's air tanks, the former assassin used his momentum to swing himself onto the monster's back. Before the iron clad giant could grab him, or bring the drill to bear, David slammed the ADAM needle into the cracked faceplate again. There was a resounding crunch as the needle crashed through the glass and into the Bouncer's skull. Roaring like a dying animal, the doomed protector crashed to the floor and finally lay still.

Barely able to move, David rolled away from the dead monstrosity. His body was broken, his muscles limp and numb. Gasping like a fish out of water, the teenager crawled across the floor, one hand on his broken ribs as hot blood seeped through his fingers. Leaning against the nearest wall, David managed to sit upright, though as he did his left leg and arm became dead weights. As his vision rolled into and out of focus, and his hearing faded to a deafening roar, he could see the Little Sister move from the hallway to kneel next to him. She desperately tried to shake David back to consciousness, her mouth moving like she was pleading with him. However, his world went black, and he slipped into unconsciousness.


	15. Chapter 15: Brawl at Ryan's Door

Part 15: Brawl at Ryan's Door

"You know," Cassidy said, pacing in front of the Big Sister. "If you'd put half the effort you've shown the last day into killing Fontaine…" Still pacing, Cassidy shook his head at David. "Well let's just say neither of us would be where we are today." There was an obvious strain in the training instructor's voice as he glared at David. With a sigh, Cassidy put his hand on the Big Sister's shoulder. "I'd like to reacquaint you with someone. Thirteen…" Cassidy's smile never reached his eyes. It was cold and heartless. "Meet Alice."

David recoiled, literally off balance, as though Cassidy had reached across the room and struck him. _Alice?_ Taking a step back, he tried to focus his rational mind, to refute what Cassidy was telling him. _It's a common name. It isn't her! It can't be her!_

"You think we didn't know? You think after all that time with Lamb that we didn't know every dark secret, every nook and cranny in your noggin?" Cassidy gave a harsh bark of laughter. "We knew about your mom, poor little Alice, hell kid I know how many times you thought about killing yourself. Of course if it had been up to me, I would've put you out of your misery a long time ago." Half of David's brain wasn't even listening to his former training instructor. He was still trying to deny what Cassidy had told him. _It has to be a trick. It's a lie. That's not Alice!_

"Better late than never, huh kid?" Turning his back on his former student, Cassidy put a fatherly hand on the Big Sister's shoulder. "Rip his fucking head off, and bring it to me on a platter."

With a wave goodbye, Cassidy strode through the massive bronze doors that led to Ryan's home. Even as the Big Sister crouched, preparing to launch herself across the room, David couldn't move. His brain was locked in place, fighting against itself, trying to come to grips with the idea that Alice, little Alice from Pauper's Drop was his opponent.

Evidently not feeling the same qualms, the Big Sister darted across the room to slam into David with the force of a cannonball. As he skidded across the floor, the former assassin managed to bring his arms up in time to catch the Big Sister's boot on his shoulder rather than his skull. He tried to pivot away, to open the distance between the two, only to have the psychotic, armored girl teleport behind him.

She grabbed two handfuls of his helmet and threw him across the room. When he crashed into a pillar and fell to the floor, David was sure his spine should have snapped. He gasped trying to force air into his lungs as his vision slid into and out of focus. With a gesture, the Big Sister ripped a chunk of marble from the floor, ready to hurl it at the former assassin. Still on the ground, David quickly charged and let fly a burst of Electro-Bolt. The orb of electricity slammed into the ADAM fueled killer with a thump, sending her sprawling across the marble floor.

"You have to fight her David! She will kill you," Tenenbaum warned, an edge in her voice. Grunting in response, David climbed back to his feet as the armored, teenaged girl teleported. When she appeared in the air in front of him, her left arm spiking through the air, he grabbed her and twisted it to the side, managing to avoid swallowing her ADAM needle. Using her momentum against her, the former assassin pulled her forward, and rammed his knee into her stomach, putting every ounce of his weight behind the blow.

Despite that David was sure that he would have killed any other living creature, or at least ruptured their small intestines, the Big Sister slid off his knee and hooked her led behind his. As fast as lighting she pulled him to the ground with a heavy thump. As the two rolled across the floor, tangled together, each fighting for an upper hand, the former assassin reached out and grabbed the girl by her armored collar. When she tried to pull away, David used her strength against her to slam the corner of his helmet into her faceplate.

The resulting impact left the glass cracked and damaged. With a screech of frustration, the Big Sister rolled again. Oddly enough, when she stopped, she was under the former assassin, rather than trying to pin him to the floor. Too late, he saw the trap. The Big Sister's hand glowed for a second before the room was shook by a thunderous explosion.

For a frozen second of time, David wondered why his feet were facing the skylight, and why it looked so close. Then the ground rolled past his vision and he crashed into a furniture set. Gasping for air and feeling like his lungs were getting none, he clutched at his side. It felt like someone had hit him with a sledgehammer the size of a refrigerator. His body burned and shook at the same time, every nerve ending throbbing.

Knowing that she wouldn't have been hampered by her own assault, David rolled to look at the Big Sister. She was on her feet where she'd been before sending the former assassin flying through the air, but armor-clad girl was clutching at her helmet. When she turned, David could see that, while she hadn't been injured by the explosion, she had coated her faceplate in ash. The fine layer of soot and slipped into the hairline cracks in the glass and blocked her vision. _End it now! _After a short struggle, David freed his left hand from under his numb body, and charged Incinerate. One blast as soon as her helmet was removed would end the fight.

With another scream, the Big Sister finally pulled the copper sphere from her head and let it clang noisily to the floor. Her short, brown hair spilled from her helmet. _Oh dear God,_ David thought, _Alice. _

The Big Sister returned her attention to him, glaring at the former assassin with Alice's face. Gone was the little girl who used to laugh at his Abbot and Costello act. She was replaced by a teenager, a young woman who'd endured more pain and insanity than David could imagine. She'd been conditioned, her psyche broken down and reformed to spear the dead to harvest their ADAM. Like the Little Sisters, her eyes glowed, though they burned with the fury and intensity of the sun, and her face was masked behind a feral snarl. But she was still Alice.

Climbing back to his feet, David removed his own helmet, hoping she would recognize a familiar face. "Alice…" the former assassin croaked, hating the scarred tissue in his throat. More than anything, at that moment, he wanted to talk to her, to tell her it was going to be okay. However, his voice was distorted, garbled behind the damage Fontaine had done.

"It's me… David." After a moment, Alice's snarl was replaced by a furrowed brow, a cautious curiosity. "Davy," he pleaded, hoping to find some scrap of humanity in her. Before he could say another word, she teleported across the room and slammed her armor plated knee into his chest. As the wind was pushed from his lungs, David instinctively brought his hands up to protect his face. Her copper shod boot slammed into his arms and skimmed of the back of his head. For a moment the world spun as his skull cried out in agony. On the ground, his vision swimming, with Alice standing over him, a final desperate thought came to David's addled mind.

"Who's on first?" he asked quickly. She paused, her arm primed to cave in his skull.

She blinked, and looked at David again. After a moment, the fiery glow in her eyes faded, replaced by vague recognition. "Davy?"


	16. Chapter 16: Mutual Bonds

Part 16: Mutual Bonds

"Hey Alice," David wheezed with a smile. Alice stared at him in disbelief. Her eyes, hazel once again, darted across every inch of his face, as though she were trying to make sure he was real. He most likely would have worn the same expression, but his head was swimming and the floor looked like it was rocking violently back and forth. "You grew up nicely." Sure he was leering, David climbed shakily to his feet. Alice giggled, like they were both back in Pauper's Drop, like they were both kids again.

"Shut up," she said, her smile fading. Her giggle turned from a natural expression of mirth, to a forced bark. "I could kill you, Davy." She took a step back, her smile gone, replaced by an agitated frown. "It would be so easy." The edges of Alice's irises began to glow, her hands balling into fists." I should… for the family."

"Come on," David responded, keeping his tone friendly. "What's the guy's name on first?" His voice was quiet, half strangled, but he managed to make himself heard. Alice giggled again, back to being human, not a psychopathic, ADAM fueled killer.

"What's the guy's name on second." She giggled again, smiling, and crossed the short space between them, wrapping both arms around his chest. Burying his head in her hair, he returned the embrace. After spending two years of his life, and one day after Tenenbaum revived him, fighting and scraping just to keep breathing, David had found something worth living for. He had died, committed and witnessed horrible acts. Rapture might be burning down around him. But none of that mattered, he had Alice again. For the first time, David was actually glad that the doctor had brought him back from the dead. Resting her head on his shoulder, Alice whispered softly, "I missed you Davy."

"Ah… another touching moment," Cassidy called out obnoxiously from the nearby speaker. David did everything in his power to ignore his former training instructor. "Well as much as it pains me to do it, I'm going to have to burst your little bubble. Alice… the family is burning."

While he couldn't see the change, he could feel it as Alice stiffened, pulling away slightly, and her muscles going tense. A suddenly bling pain pierced David's abdomen. When he looked down, he found that Alice had stabbed him, running the three feet of steel that was her ADAM gathering hypodermic into his stomach. She lifted him with the same arm, pinning the writhing teenager against the wall. As blood frothed up his throat, David bit down a scream, clutching the ADAM needle, futilely trying to dislodge it from his stomach.

With all the effort of flicking away a fly, the Big Sister threw him across the room, dislodging the ADAM needle in the same motion. David slammed into the floor, sliding to a stop inches from falling into the massive hole in Zeus's Crown. After coughing up a clump of blood, the former assassin, running more on adrenaline than anything else, slowly rose to his feet. The world around him had become a blur, his brain unable to cope with the repeated and devastating injuries his body had sustained.

As he swayed, his limbs going numb, David could make out a vague outline of something charging toward him. Instinct took over. Two years of training, implanted memories, and endless repetition turned his body against him. He grabbed at the nearest limb within reach, and pulled the attacker over his hip.

Some part of David's mind managed to fight off the fog of blood loss and concussions that clouded his vision and judgment. He held onto the arm as Alice slipped over the edge. Her weight dragging him down, the former assassin crashed to the floor, his right arm and shoulder dangling over the abyss. Desperately, knowing it was an act of futility, David tried to pull Alice back to solid ground, while his other hand gripped at the smooth tiles.

As she hung from one hand, Alice was hidden behind a mask of hatred, her eyes glowing with unchecked fury. They gazed at David with an unseeing, unquestioning malice. Even as he tried to pull her to safety, her hand glowed ominously. _No! Fight it Alice!_ David screamed internally.

A moment later, the world shifted. One second he was half over the edge, still sliding closer to a fatal plunge, the next the world was white. Remembering the Little Sister's sojourn into his subconscious, David had a moment to wonder what Alice was trying to accomplish before the light faded, and he found himself outside of Rapture altogether.

Standing before him, in a ballroom lit by brilliant sunlight, Alice, dressed in a white evening gown, gently tugged him toward the dance floor. This wasn't Alice as a little girl, or the half mad killer who'd been tortured half her life. This was Alice as a young woman who'd never been inducted into the Little Sister program, an imagining of what her life could have been. Laughing, the light playing across her face, she spun, letting her dress swirl around her.

The ballroom melted away, revealing a moonlit park. Walking slowly, arm in arm, the two made their way past koi ponds and through swirling fireflies, until they reached a gentle, grassy slope. Lying there, watching the stars, Alice rested her head on David stomach.

Just as swiftly as the ballroom had disappeared, the sky turned dark with clouds and a gentle rain fell on the two. Laughing, they ran under the sheltering branches of a willow tree. Alice pressed close to David, her warmth spreading through his soaked clothing. She tilted her head up, and pressed her lips to his.

The warmth and comfort of the illusion was replaced by a blinding, white-hot pain in David's right arm. Convulsively his hand sprang open. For a moment that seemed to last an eternity, Alice seemed to hang in the air, her face framed by her short hair. In that moment David thought he could see her smile. Then, she was gone, swallowed by the darkness, falling down the abysmal hole that led to the bottom of Zeus's Crown.

"ALICE!" David screamed. Maybe if he shouted loud enough, maybe if he wished hard enough, if he could deny it, she might come back. Rolling away from the edge, David felt an indescribable yawning in his heart, a hole that had briefly been filled by the one thing that had made his life worth living. _No, please God… no. _David begged. _Bring her back… Please… just bring her back._ Curling into a ball, David gave a pained shout of loss and self-loathing. More than anything he wished Tenenbaum hadn't brought him back, that the Big Daddy or Big Sister had done their jobs and killed him. Anything, and everything to bring her back.

Without the helmet, David could feel his body dying, the long absence leaving a painful burning his lungs, like each breath was an inhalation of acid. _Good, _David raged at himself. _Let me die. I deserve it. I killed her, I should die._ For those few moments he was ready to lie there and accept the poison that was working its way through his veins. Then, he remembered why Alice had turned on him. _No,_ David thought, a low growl escaping his clenched teeth. _Cassidy. _

Pulling his broken and bruised body up, David felt a new, vindictive energy fill his veins. Replacing the helmet on his head, feeling the suit go to work on his injuries, he glared at the massive, bronze doors. While his stomach sent one pulse of agony into his spine after another, David was sure it wouldn't kill him before he could get to his former training instructor.

"David I…" Though he was sure Tenenbaum had some comforting words to say, David interrupted her with a harsh growl.

"Quiet," he snapped, harsher than he intended. "Just… just let me do this." Pushing the massive doors to Ryan's home open, David found his Cassidy, pale, trying to suppress and hide the fear that was obviously bubbling its way to the surface.

"Okay kid, I'll grant your wish," Cassidy said, his voice shaking as he raised the Thompson. "I'll put you down myself." With hatred and blind rage fueling his every step, David flicked his wrist, using Telekinesis to send the machinegun flying away. With the same effort he slammed Cassidy into the wall, pinning the man, despite several yards separating the two of them. While his former training instructor writhed, struggling to free himself, David took sadistic pleasure in watching the fear creep into the man's every feature. When David was only a few inches away, Cassidy's resolve broke. "What do you want from me?"

Methodically, David removed his helmet and leaned close to whisper in Cassidy's ear. "I want to hear your heart stop." Punctuating his sentence, the former assassin slammed his ADAM hypodermic into Cassidy's chest. Quietly, David put his ear to his former training instructor chest and listened. _Beat, beat._ Cassidy let out a wet gurgle as blood shot up his throat. _Beat, beat… _The man pinned to the wall screamed, flecks of blood flying from his mouth. _Beat… beat._ David felt a cruel and merciless smile cross his face. _Beat… silence._

Breathing deep, David detached the ADAM hypodermic from his arm, leaving the needle to pin Cassidy to the wall. Turning his back on the corpse, he replaced his helmet. "Tenenbaum… What do I… do now?"

After a short pause, the doctor walked David through the use of Ryan's emergency control panel. As he followed her instructions, he couldn't help but notice the emptiness that still plagued his chest. Cassidy was dead. So why didn't he feel any better? Why did his heart still hurt?

"Whoever controls this system controls Rapture. The Big Daddies, Big Sisters they will follow your command now." When David pulled the last lever, the room filled with a bright, purple light. One by one six Big Sisters appeared. Rapture was now firmly under David's control.


	17. Chapter 17: Epilogue

A/N: Okay that's the end. I'd love to know what you thought. Please review. Thanks for reading!

Epilogue

Once he had Rapture under his control, David was mildly tempted to use the Big Sisters to take over the city, to steal all the ADAM. But it was a fleeting whim, and he quickly dismissed it. He stole a glance at the corpse that still hung from the wall. _No, I'm not going to be like you._

The first thing he had to do was get Tenenbaum from her hiding place in the Calypso Square's train station to Ryan's home. When she arrived, having ridden on Ryan's personal train car, she glanced at Cassidy before putting a comforting hand on David's shoulder.

"I think we should be getting you out of that thing." David wasn't sure what the doctor did after she used a powerful anesthetic to put him to sleep. Like her explanations regarding the suit, he didn't care. When he opened his eyes, he no longer needed the heavy, spun-copper helmet to stay alive. "You can live without the rest of the suit as well," Tenenbaum explained. "However removing it will take several hours of delicate surgery, and I do not want to be risking that while we are down here."

With David freed of the need for the diving suit, and an area for the Little Sister in place, the self-imposed leader of Rapture sent the Big sisters into the city. Meanwhile, Tenenbaum went to work deprogramming the armor clad teenagers.

Each Big Sister reacted to the rehabilitation differently. Grace, the first to be treated, was silent save for the occasional outburst of homicidal rage. Conversely Rachel would talk incessantly, until something would rub her in just the wrong way. Then, she would become silent, like a snake ready to strike.

As more and more of the Little Sisters filled Ryan's home, David found himself growing restless and irritable. Even though he was constantly surrounded by others, he felt alone, isolated. Before long he took to snapping at anyone who came within a few feet of him, shouting at them over nothing. Tenenbaum ignored or avoided David whenever he gave her the same treatment, until one of the Little Sisters asked him for something and he yelled at her.

"Enough," the doctor shouted, pulling the little girl aside. Once they were out of earshot from the others, Tenenbaum rounded on the former assassin, her jaw clenching. "What are you doing?" Having no reasonable excuse for his actions, David stared at the floor. The doctor's fists tightened into balls, her anger showing at last. She opened her mouth to shout at him, and then abruptly closed it again. The way she stared at him, her eyes locked onto his, made David feel like she was peering into his soul.

"Take one of the rehabilitated Big Sisters and go find her." When he opened his mouth to argue, Tenenbaum put her hand under his jaw, clamping it shut. "You are needing this. For yourself and for them."

Lindsey, one of the deprogrammed Big Sisters volunteered to go with him into the bowls of Zeus's Crown. David swallowed the urge to tell her to piss off. After Tenenbaum had undone some of the damage Lamb had inflicted on the teenager, Lindsey had taken to checking on David every chance she got, as though if she lost sight of him for more than five minutes, he would vanish.

The trip back to the flooded area of Zeus's Crown was uneventful, but painfully long. First they took Ryan's train back to Volcanus Flats, then, walking along the ocean floor, they arrived through the shattered glass David had used to escape the mob of Splicers. Considering that this was where he had landed after his plummet through Zeus's Crown, they figured that would be the best place to start. Already the ocean had reclaimed three floors, and was still rising, albeit very slowly.

As they searched through the ruined building, David began to wonder what it was he was looking for. Did he need to see her body? Why was he bothering with this time consuming search when there were more important things to be done?

The moment he decided to give up, to find Lindsey and call the whole search off, was the moment when she called out, telling him that she'd found something. When David caught up with her, he found her in an open area, once a lavish restaurant, now nothing more than a pile of ruins. She was standing over a broken table whose grey cloth had been stained by a splotch of bright crimson. She pointed to the spot on the tablecloth. This was where Alice had landed. But where was her body?

"Splicers… they must have found her and," as Lindsey trailed off, unable to complete her thought, David saw something that caught his attention. Beside the table, an Audio Diary had been intentionally laid in the open. At one point everyone in Rapture had owned one of these simple recording devices, a simple recording machine.

Closing his eyes, David pressed play. Initially, only silence emanated from the small machine. Then, a voice, almost inaudible, could be heard whispering. David could neither make out who was talking nor understand what they were saying. As the tape wound to an end, a request suddenly sounded, clear as day and in Alice's voice: "Find me."


End file.
